Spells of the Heart
by Rose Brown
Summary: Chapter 11 uploaded! Severus and Glynda finally get down and dirty. But how will she feel after the deed? Will Lucius haunt her thoughts? Read on to find out. Oh and leave a review for me too! Hugs RB. PS Rated R for a good reason!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: JK owns HP and everything. Thank you for the use of your world! I own nothing but the emotional instability of Glynda.  
This story will eventually contain some sex scenes which some people may find disturbing, so don't read it if you have any sexual hang-ups.

**Prologue**

****

The heavy oak door swung open with a creak and then shut with a dull thud announcing the arrival of Lucius Malfoy.

She had been eagerly waiting for her husband to come home, and Glynda ran at full speed across the marble-floored hall from the sitting room with her arms almost overbalancing her in reaching out for him. As she approached, she leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He caught her, letting out a surprised moan at her actions, and held her in place as she hurriedly kissed and nibbled at his neck through his long blond hair. He drew his head back from her eagerness with a questioning expression as he let her back down onto her feet gently.

Her grin and bouncy posture, as she looked urgingly into his eyes, were contagious. Finally Lucius' face broke into a happy smile and questioned her.

"You have received good news that you wish to share I presume."

"Yes." came a squeaky reply on the verge of spilling over.

"And if I don't ask you what the news is, I'm not going to find out until…"

"Lucius! We're pregnant…….I'm pregnant…….We're going to have a baby." She bounced up and down some more and brought her hands to her face to cover her nose and mouth. Tears were forming in her eyes.

Lucius' mouth fell open and his eyes widened as his arms wound around her and drew her into him.

"Oh! My God." he breathed. "I'm going to be a father."

"Yes" came a giggly sob from his chest.

He unfolded her from the embrace and held her upper arms in a firm grip.

"We're going to be parents" he said before dropping to his knees and putting his ear against her stomach. Lucius looked up at his wife, the mother of his child, and they both giggled uncontrollably for a few minutes before he took hold of her again and looked lovingly into her eyes.

"I love you Glynda." A pause. "I love you so very much."

"I love you too Lucius." Her eyes were still brimming with tears. "We're going to be the most wonderful family."

They held each other close for a while, still standing by the door.

Glynda had never before been so happy. Here she was leaning into the embrace of a man she loved deeper than she could understand and she was carrying his child. Their first child. A child that had been conceived in the purest and most passionate throes of love. Even after four years of marriage, her heart still surged with love at the thought of Lucius Malfoy. She sighed with contentment.

Nine months later, through a curtain of fear and confusion, Glynda heard the first cries of her child. The dark, hooded strangers took the new boy-child to Lucius waiting in the corner. He turned and left her lying restrained in chains on the bed, with a blonde-haired woman by his side.

Glyndas' heart felt like it was about to explode. Stinging, salty tears drenched her maternity gown. She could hear her baby's screams getting quieter and more distant. The dark figures rounded on her and a strange incantation was spoken. As the words were completed, the pounding in her chest stopped and she could no longer even feel her sorrow. Fear engulfed her. Fear like she had never thought possible. Fear for herself, fear for her son. Even in her exhausted post-natal state, she could think of nothing but getting away from these people and never ever being part of their world again. She tried to get up and found her restraints gone. She painfully rose and began her escape. There were no signs of where her child had been taken, but she just had an overwhelming sense of terror that stopped her from trying to find out.

She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore. The grief came back, but the waves of horror never left.

As time went on, the pain remained and so did the fear.

Weeks went by and the love for Lucius and her baby was tinged with bewilderment. The fear remained.

Months went by and her love remained and so did the fear.

Years went by and life became bearable. The love was still there. And so was the fear……


	2. Return to Hogwarts

**Chapter 1**

Glynda checked the computer screen one more time before she closed up the lab for the night.  Power cuts had caused her work to screw up on more occasions than she cared to remember lately and she was already behind schedule with her project.  All being well, she switched off the lights and locked up.

"It would just be sods law for this analysis to bugger up again" she thought. "I bet there aren't any other witches worrying about the limitations of muggle electricity."

"Uh Oh! That's you guys in my head again.  Good one Glynda!"

Sixteen years had passed since her baby had been pried away from her and she had fled from the wizarding world.  Not one day had went by when she hadn't given though to 'her boys'.  The baby, her son, made her head fill with swirls and confusion as she wondered of his progression in life, and Lucius.  The memories gave her pangs of sorrow.  She didn't cry anymore.  Never cried.  Not since she seemed to run out of tears.  Though she thought about them daily.  She thought about them as she made her way to her car. 

A nice quick drive home with loud music would clear her head.  A bonus of always working late into the evening meant that the roads were free of rush hour traffic and Glynda could get home at a safe, but high speed.  Just the way she liked to drive. 

The car park was empty save her car that was in the space but one from the entrance.  Another bonus of working long hours was getting the prime parking spaces.  Tonight the only difference from usual was a strange figure standing next to her car.  Glynda had to do a double take.  The man waiting for her could not be the person she thought it was.  He was tall, like she remembered, with a familiar long white beard and eccentric clothes that suited him perfectly.  She hadn't seen this man for about twenty years, yet it was him.  She wasn't really prepared to believe it though.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

The man chuckled.

"Please Glynda, you've been graduated from Hogwarts for many years now.  Call me Albus."

Her shock was obvious.  With her mouth open and quivering, she stared questioningly at the distantly familiar figure in front of her.  There were niggling feeling in her stomach that the vision of this man brought, but she couldn't quite work out what they were.  It was almost like warm comfortable memories.  Memories that she had tried to repress over the long, lonely years in the muggle world.

The association of this man with her previous life reared an acceleration of emotions.  Glynda saw the twinkle in his eye as he smiled at her and she burst into breathless laughter that was soon dampened by a succession of small panicky sobs preceding wails of grief.  Her body was overcome with anguish and she reached her hand out to steady herself against her car. The man grabbed hold of her before her legs gave way completely.

"Dear, dear Glynda.  I'm so sorry.  I had no idea my presence would reduce you to this." He gestured gently towards her face.

"I can't see you! I can't see you!" came choked gasps.

"I'm here.  I've got you.  There there."  He patted her shoulder.

"No!" more controlled.  "I'm not allowed to be here with you.  I'm banished…"

The man interrupted. "It's OK.  I understand your situation.  Things have changed and I have a lot that I need to explain to you, and you to me."

He reduced his support of her slightly and she balanced herself.  Her tears poured feely.

"I….don't…under….stand." came through agonised sobs.

"Like I said, I have a lot to explain.  Now, I think it would be best to get out of the cold and settle down next to a nice warm fire with a hot drink."

Glynda tried to focus on him through her tears.  Her mind was too confused to respond.

"Now let me think."  He said, almost to himself.  "Yes.  Let's try that.  Would you mind if I transported your car and us to Hogwarts?"

"Ho…Hogwarts?  I….I can't" she tried to sort some impossible information in her mind.  "They'll….they'll kill us…."  Glynda's sobs became fiercer.  Strong, reassuring hands took hold of her arms and the man tried to reason with her.  She could hear his voice urging her to trust him, but couldn't register anything else.  She found herself being ushered into the passenger seat of her car.  On production of a wand and an unfamiliar incantation, the engine was started.  Another incantation was muttered and the surroundings of the car dissolved around them to be replaced with countryside and a huge castle in the background.  Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  The gates in front of them opened up and moved forward and drove towards the main entrance.

            Horrified, Glynda drew in many shallow breaths and tried to control her now-accelerating heart beat.  Slowly, she turned to look at the man, who did not seem to be in control of the direction the car was taking.  It _was_ Albus Dumbledore.  Headmaster of the school.  Her brain finally managed to register his presence and it gave her an unexpected content feeling.  Her tears halted, but her breathing remained painful.  Her heart was still beating quickly.

            She barely had time to contemplate the familiar sights of Hogwarts before she was sitting in a large squashy armchair in front of a crackling fire next to a concerned, but controlled Albus Dumbledore.  He tilted his head towards her and held out a steaming mug of hot chocolate.  His smile warmed her.

"Now Glynda, I'm going to tell you what I know about your situation with the hope of filling in some new information for you.  I hope that there will be some parts of the story that you can help me to understand."  He paused to take a drink of his own hot chocolate.  "Do you feel up to this now, or do you need to time to come to terms with events so far?"  There was no accusation in his tone, only genuine concern.

Glynda took a deep breath.

"I need some explanation before I can come to terms with anything."

"Very well.  I'll be as plain as I can, but please feel free to interrupt me as you see fit."  Glynda nodded slowly.

Albus took another drink.

"Let's start with what I know.  I know that you were married to Lucius Malfoy and that you gave birth to his child.  The child was taken from you at birth by Lucius and a group of his fellow Death Eaters.  They then cast a complex banishment spell on you which caused you to believe that both you and your son would be killed if you had anything to with the wizarding world.  You have lived as a muggle ever since.  Is this summary accurate Glynda?"

She sat in silence and a solitary tear rolled down her cheek.  Her eyes were unfocussed and she nodded gently.

"I am still married to Lucius Malfoy.  Sixteen years ago we had a son.  Lucius…. changed.  The day I gave birth, he…. He took our baby away.  He made me leave him.  They made me leave them both."

"The Death Eaters?"

"Death Eaters?"

"The people Lucius was involved with."

"Yes.  There were three of them.  I didn't know who they were.  They never even let me hold my son."  Glynda's tears came faster.  "I couldn't come back.  I tried, but I was too scared.  I've cursed at myself so often, but I just couldn't get over the fear of my sons' and my own death if I even did so much as conjure a blanket for myself.  I snapped my wand to stop the temptation of using it in-case they tried to kill us."

"It was the spell they used that made you feel that way.  It was an everlasting charm that makes the victim believe that their worst fear will happen if they go against the casters' instructions.  Your instruction was the banishment spell, so you could never have any contact from the wizarding world."

"How do you know about this?"

"For sixteen years this secret has been kept between six people: you and Lucius, the three people involved at the birth, and Severus Snape."

A disgusted grunt came from Glynda.  Her hackles went up immediately.  She had always blamed him for what happened between her and Lucius, even though she didn't really know what he'd done.  Severus and Lucius had been best friends, but Severus had always remained cold and distant to her.  He'd never made an effort to get to know her, yet she strongly disliked the hold he had seemed to have had over Lucius.

"I knew he must have been involved in some way or another."

"It was Severus who told me the whole story."

"Professor?" Glynda debated whether or not she actually wanted to know the answer to the question that had been ripping her apart since she left.  "Do you know why they took my baby?" a thoughtful pause, "Do you know why they made me leave?"

Dumbledore sighed.  "My understanding of it is patchy.  Voldemort's sister Narcissa couldn't have children naturally.  When she discovered this, her then husband tried to leave her, but Voldemort killed him."

"I don't know any of the people you're talking about." Glynda interrupted.

A sudden dawn of realisation spread across Dumbledore's face.

"You know nothing of Lucius' beliefs or those of the people he is involved with do you?"  He continued before she could answer.  "My dear, there is so much wizard history that I will have to fill you in on.  For now, just know that Voldemort was the leader of the Death Eaters.  Lucius was one of his many followers.  They caused years of anonymous misery to muggles and wizards alike.  You may recall many mysterious deaths to muggle-born wizards and some muggles in strange circumstances that pointed to wizards or magic folk?  Well Voldemort and the Death Eaters were behind them.  Their vision was to have a race of pure-blood wizards and rid the world of muggles and their descendants.  Shortly after your departure, they exposed themselves and subjected us to eight months of evil terrorism.  Even pure-blood wizards were not safe in the end.  Voldemort met his downfall soon after and most of his followers were imprisoned and some escaped and live among us.  Because no one knew who all the death eaters were, some walked free.  Lucius was one who walked free…."

"But Lucius wouldn't do anything like that.  He doesn't even believe in all that pure-blood stuff.  He married me.  I'm muggle-born.  He knew that and he loved me."

Dumbledore put his hand up to calm her down.

"That is one of the parts that I don't understand.  Lucius practised that belief with Voldemort and still holds the belief.  You should also know that he has also brought up your son to follow this belief.  He holds animosity to muggle-borns."

"That just can't be true.  Our son if half muggle-born." Her tone was exasperated.

"My dear, let me conclude the answer to your question."  He took a slow, deep breath. "When Voldemort found out that Lucius was expecting a child with a muggle-born, he subjected him to much torture and abuse to assess his allegiance.  This may have been a turning point for Lucius, but I don't know that for sure."  Dumbledore said dismissively.  "I do know for sure that Voldemort tested Lucius' allegiance with a proposition that if he brought this child up with Narcissa as his mother, he would perform rituals to purify his child's blood, and Lucius…."

"Lucius accepted the offer." Glynda finished in disbelief.  "Professor Dumbledore, none of this makes sense to me.  Lucius and I were in love.  How could I not know of his involvement with these evil people?  Surely I would have noticed."

"Are you sure you didn't?" Dumbledore asked, not accusingly.  "Love can be blind Glynda." Thoughts rumbled around in Glynda's head.  She couldn't allow herself to have this story tie in with her memories of her 'perfect' relationship with Lucius.  Their coupling was solid.  The only explanation that she could come up with again and again was…

"Severus Snape!" she said aloud.  "It was all his doing.  He brainwashed Lucius.  I always thought he spent too much time with him.  I could tell he always hated me.  He was so distant.  It must have been his opinion of muggle-borns that turned him against me."  Glynda was on her feet now with anger swelling inside her.  "He turned Lucius' mind into his own and turned him against me."  Tears were pouring freely again.  "Lucius loved me!"  It was a shout, not at Dumbledore.  "He loved me, and Snape poisoned his mind against me." Dumbledore has followed her paces and gently tried to comfort her.

"Please do not upset yourself more." He tried to usher her back to the seat by the fireplace.  "I believe you have a very distorted image of Severus Snape in this story.  Unfortunately it is not my place to put that part of the story right in your mind."  She looked at his quizzically. "It is because of Severus that you are here today.  Well, partly.  He is loyal to me.  He turned his back on the ranks of Voldemort and turned spy for our side.

            "He came forward to me with this story when we found out that your son is in great need of his mothers' protection.  His natural mother.  I have sought you to ask for your help in protecting your son Draco against some vigilante Voldemort followers."

The words sank into her mind.  Her first instinct was worry and fear for her son.  He needed protection and she would do whatever was necessary to ensure his safety.  Hell, she had lived sixteen years in misery just so she and her son could stay alive.  It was the mention of his name that sank in deepest.

"Draco" quietly and gently, she played with the word in her mouth.  "Draco Malfoy" she said a bit louder and with a hint of pride.

"He's here at Hogwarts isn't he?" she questioned Dumbledore eagerly while trying to repress more tears.  As he bowed his head in a nod, she gulped and folded her arms around herself in an attempt to wrap herself in the atmosphere of her son. Draco.

"Am I…. going to see him?" she asked tentatively.  The consequences of a positive answer had not even begun to form emotion inside her.  She was too numb.

"Eventually, you are going to have to see both Lucius and Draco again." Dumbledore stated.

"Lucius." This thought turned her insides to what felt like mush.  She shook nervously.  To see him again was something more that her best dreams had been since she left.  All at once and at the same time she could pinpoint excitement, nervousness, fear and longing.  There was just no scenario in her mind that helped her imagine what meeting him again would be like in these circumstances.  She'd had day dreams about him coming into her muggle life and explaining everything that had happened away and they'd live happily-ever-after.  Other day dreams included letters promising undying love for her even though he was being kept from her.  Obviously they never came true.  Sixteen years of nothing.  And now with thoughts of seeing him again and the knowledge of his feeling towards her and other muggle-borns, she couldn't even contemplate what meeting him again would mean.

"For now…." Dumbledore brought her back "I would like for you to be reacquainted with Severus.  There is…"

"SEVERUS SNAPE?" she roared.  "He's here too?... And you want me to meet him again?"

"Glynda, please! As I've already stated, I believe that your opinion of Severus is not befitting of him.  There are other details regarding your situation that you don't know about.  Severus, at a great risk to himself, spoke freely to me about such details.  Even Lucius doesn't know.  I have asked Severus to share his information with you as it is mainly concerned with you and he. He had grudgingly agreed, but it may take some degree of extraction to get the full story from him.  He is somewhat….Inward?...with his feelings."  Dumbledore chuckled to himself.  Glynda raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not happy about this, but I trust you, so I will see Severus."

"Good, good." Dumbledore strode towards the fireplace and pinched some floo powder.  "I'll have some rooms set up adjoining the dungeons.  You and Severus can have a chat and we'll discuss the matter arising some more in the morning.  Severus should be expecting you."  He handed her the floo powder.  "The password to Severus' fire is 'Hyperserpent'.

Glynda took a long deep breath and stepped into the fire using the floo powder.  Moments later she stepped out into a cold stone room containing many books and cauldrons.  At the opposite wall, looking startled behind his desk, was the dark form of Severus Snape.


	3. Meeting Snape

**Chapter 2**

Severus Snape rose slowly from his seat.  Glynda took a few steps away from the fireplace and held his gaze.  He was looking at her with a strange expression.  One that she couldn't figure out.  Dumbledore has said that he'd be expecting her so why was he looking at her like that?  She felt slightly nauseated with the embers of anger that she has expressed against him shortly before.  Seeing him only pronounced her previous opinion, no matter what Dumbledore's opinion of him was.

Snape shifted around his desk and began to move slowly towards her.  His gaze didn't falter.

"Glynda." He said as a gentle welcome.  She was confused by his tone.  He almost breathed her name and his actions were almost nervous.

"Dumbledore sent me to see you." She said curtly.  It made Snape start.

"Yes." His eyes left her and he stopped moving towards her.  "Yes, I know." Snape gestured towards a door leading off his classroom.  "Please come and have a seat in my chamber."

His eyes rested back on hers.  Glynda looked away immediately and strode towards the door and entered a warm chamber with a few armchairs around a coffee table.  She could sense Snapes' gaze following her movements.  Glynda quickly perched on the edge of the closest chair and turned to look at him.  Snape closed the door behind him, all the while maintaining his mixed-emotion stare.

"You need me to do something to protect my son."  She stated bluntly.  "What have I to do?"

Snape swallowed hard. A-ha! She thought.  Guilt trip.  He knows what he's done to me and Lucius and now that he needs my help, he feels guilty about it.

Snape moved slowly to the seat next to her and lowered himself onto its edge.  Glynda instinctively moved back to sit fully in her chair.  She looked at him aggressively, and with a slight sigh, Snape finally took his focus away from her and rested his eyes on the floor.  A few moments passed in silence.

"Well?" she demanded.

Snape swallowed again.  His trance-like tone returned to the sneer she remembered.

"I believe that the headmaster had planned on explaining the whole situation to you himself.  I understand that my involvement was to enlighten you on a few historic….personal matters."

"Personal matters?" she questioned.

"Yes.  Regarding the events that took place sixteen years ago."

His cold tone enraged her.

"Well." She spat "It does seem like you have had more involvement in these 'events' than I remember.  What was in it for you Snape?  More control over Lucius?  Me out of your life?  I always knew that you didn't approve of me and Lucius being together, but until tonight, I didn't realise you had stupid pure-blood beliefs." Glyndas' voice became louder as she poured out her bitterness and resentment as fast as she could. "Why couldn't you just have left us alone? Lucius married me because he loved me regardless of my heritage.  You twisted his mind Snape. You are a cruel, evil bastard and you ruined my life." She buried her head in her hands and tried to hold back her sobs.

"I'm so sorry Glynda."

What had Dumbledore been thinking?  Her opinion of Snape was right all along and here he was trying to apologise for himself.

"Can I please explain?"  he asked tentatively. 

She moved her hands and looked at him with a scowl.

"I don't need your explanation.  I know the script.  You and your dead eaters and things."

"Death Eaters." He corrected.

"Well whatever." She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.  "I don't want to be here with you.  I don't know what Dumbledore thinks he's up to, but I'm not sitting here with you… you manipulative arsehole.  I hate you!"  She stood up.  Her eyes bored into his and were full of tears and anger.

"Please Glynda…" he trailed off.

Was that hurt in his eyes? She thought.  Well I hope he hurts.

"I've had sixteen years of misery because of you.  I hope the fact that you can't pacify what you've done to us hurts you just a fraction of the amount I've been hurt.  Then I'll know you've suffered."

"I've had sixteen years of misery too."

"GOOD!" she yelled.

"No, please Glynda.  You need to know." He stopped abruptly.  He closed his eyes and massaged them as if he had a headache forming.  She watched him sigh deeply.  He relaxed back into his chair and turned his head away from her.

"Right Snape." She snapped.  "Tell me what Dumbledore wants you to tell me.  Quickly."  She sharply sat back down on the edge of her seat and looked at him.  He remained in his position.

"Dumbledore wants me to tell you about how you are protected by a charm that was performed before Draco was born." He turned and looked intently into her eyes.  "I want to tell you the truth about the reason why the charm was performed." He paused. "I won't though!" He turned away again.  "You'd never accept the truth.  But I can tell you some facts surrounding it.  Some of which are _very_ different to your perception of your past."

"Go on then." She insisted.

He looked at her through the side of his eyes as if to question whether she really wanted him to talk or not.  Her attention was completely focussed on him.  She wanted to get the information that Dumbledore had thought necessary for her to know and then get the hell away from him.  She looked at his face as he shifted himself to get more comfortable in order to begin.  She had never really looked at him before and although her life of misery has been somewhat credited to him by her, his face was so unfamiliar to her.  It's not that she wouldn't recognise him, but his features in such detail were new to her.  So was this situation.

"Lucius was in love with you." Snape began gently.  Glynda clucked impatiently.  He continued by ignoring her.  "He loved you in the beginning, but he changed.  His involvement with the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters encouraged his in-bred illusions that muggles and muggle-borns were lesser beings.  He became a very evil man.  I have no doubt that it was his feelings for you that kept him sane for so long, but after a while the Dark Lord began to question and test the loyalties of his followers.  That's when Lucius began to crack.  The Dark Lord has very strong powers of persuasion.  He can easily manipulate weak minds.  Lucius was easy prey.  He had mixed emotions between you and the power that the Dark lord could offer him.  He was simply shown the influence he could have over those he despised and how he could become even more powerful.  He chose power."

She felt Snape watching her as she took in this information.  Her exterior was very calm and relaxed.  Her mind was fizzing.

"The charm…"  Glynda cut him off.

"I'm sure he had a lot of help with his choices."  Snape raised an eyebrow in question.  She continued.  "With his vindictive best friend sitting on his shoulder, ready to lead him into his evil ways, and poisoning his mind against me…."  Snape cut in on her ravings.

"If you mean me, then understand that I have never spoken ill of you to Lucius and I'm not evil.  Look Glyda, your image of Lucius may have been sweetness and light through your rose-tinted glassed, but let me assure you that that is a much skewed reality.  Lucius has and always will be an evil bastard.  At first, when you came into our lives….. his life…"  Snape paused as if wanting to gauge her reaction then went on. "I thought that you might change his way of thinking.  I was hoping, but the Dark Lord was more persuasive than you."

"Dark Lord my arse! It was you.  You made him go to those meetings and you made him change."

"Glynda.  That is so wrong."  He rested for a moment.  Glynda just couldn't have her world turned upside-down like this again.  The thoughts in her head kept stinging her brain.  She finally voiced her thoughts.

"For all these years I have continued to love my son and my husband without knowing anything about either of them.  The love for them is unconditional.  It always will be.  How dare you sit there and tell me how bad Lucius was?".

"Because he was. You think that I roped him into joining the Dark Lord, whereas in fact it was the other way around.  Don't get me wrong, I had nothing to keep me back from it.  The whole realm of power and people who were interested in helping you use that power was very inviting to me at that time, so I joined with him.  As I was beginning to realise that I wasn't where I wanted to be it was too late.  The Dark Lord had endorsed me as a Death Eater.  I soon managed to be strong enough to deceive the Dark Lord and become a spy for Dumbledore.  Glynda please believe me.  I really tried to get Lucius out and tried to make him realise his love for you, but he didn't want that at all."  Snape pleaded into her eyes.  She didn't want to believe him.  She let him go on.

"The charm on you was performed when you were pregnant with Draco.  Lucius had been instructed to 'dispose' of you after birth.  He became unable to see reason.  You had to be protected."  Snape became distracted in his own thoughts again.  Glynda reflected.

"What is the charm?  Who protected me?"

Snape glanced at her.  The story was all sinking into her now.  She didn't want to accept that this was reality, but somehow she was beginning to.

"The charm is extremely complex." Snape began.  "It doesn't make you invincible, but certain people you can be shielded from.  They can cause you no physical harm.  It was the only way that you would have survived."

"Who protected me?" she asked again.

Snape looked away.

"I've told you what you need to know for now." He stood up and made for the door and began to open it. "Dumbledore wants to speak to you again in the morning.  The protection spell that was used on you will need to be preformed on Draco."

"Who protected me?" she demanded.  She rose and strode over to the now open door and faced him.  Glynda looked deeply into Snapes eyes.  She had never seen such endless darkness.  A sensation came over her as he focussed into her.  Her heart was beating loud and fast and she knew the answer to her question the second before it left his lips.

"I did."


	4. Down to Business

**Chapter 3**

The moon shone over the grounds of Hogwarts and reflected off the still surface of the lake. It was a clear night, but not too cold for Glynda to sit in a window ledge at the top of the astronomy tower with her legs hugged into her chest. Her head rested back onto the chilly stone wall. She tried to make some sort of reality out of what she had learnt that night. It really did jar quite fiercely with the reality she had know that morning.

Given the fact that no dark stranger had appeared to slay her, she accepted Dumbledores explanation of the banishment spell that had been cast on her and that it had been broken. She still had trouble picturing her son in her mind. The name Draco hadn't really suited the image she had brought up in her mind, so she had to recreate the wonderment all over again. A happy nervousness coated her with the prospect of being able to see Draco soon, for the second time ever. Glynda was also very worried about the danger Draco was in, as that was -of course- the reason she was here.

'Who would have thought that a mother would still feel so protective even after being apart for so long?' she thought. The sorrowful feelings arose when she thought of Lucius. This part of the puzzle still didn't fit together. Everything she had ever believed in surrounding her relationship and emotion towards Lucius had crumbled. She was still resilient to the contemplation that Lucius was something else other than the man she knew and loved. 'Loves.' She corrected.

God, how she still wanted him,…. Wanted to find out that these tales of evils and Dark Lords were bullshit…. Wanted to find out that she could still end up happily back in Lucius' strong and gentle arms once more. She pictured a time when they were young and desperately in love. She would give up the rest of her life to go back to that moment. Any moment, in fact, where she was close with him. Still together in love.

Memories brought tears. It had been a dream all this time to be with him again, and if these tales of Dumbledore's were true, then it was never going to happen. It made her so sad and numb. Like the ray of hope had been overshadowed with sorrow.

Through all her reflection, her most surprised reaction was how she seemed to feel when she thought of someone else. Severus Snape. The man she had spoken to earlier in the evening was not the man she had known before Draco was born. But then, she hadn't really _known_ Snape at all well. He had always kept her at a great distance. Her only knowledge of him was a strong atmosphere of animosity whenever they had to meet, which was fairly often. There had never been much in the way of conversation, only through Lucius. She disliked Snape more so because he seemed to upset Lucius regularly. After hearing Dumbledores' story, she credited this to Snape trying to turn Lucius into something evil and make him leave her. But her mind niggled with something that Snape had told her. Something about it having been Lucius who had made Snape join this Vladimir person and not the other way around. Why should she believe him though? Her head told her that he was the baddie in her life, yet somehow her instinct made her trust him in the same way that she had trusted Dumbledore. She cursed herself for this.

'He's a bloody manipulator' she kept trying to tell herself, but she just couldn't stop herself from absorbing the information she had heard that evening as truth. It turned her world as she knew it inside-out, but she really felt like it was the truth. The more she pondered why she believed Snape, the more she became aware of a peculiar feeling in the middle of her stomach. It wasn't a new feeling. She knew she had felt it before, a long, long time ago, but she couldn't pinpoint what it meant.

Over and over again she recalled him telling her that he had cast the protection charm on her. This was the part that was the most far fetched from her previous reality. Snape didn't like her and never had. She felt that he had wanted her out of his life and to have Lucius to himself.

'So why did he protect me?' she thought. This though remained in the forefront of her mind as she finally decided to go back down to her rooms and rest under her bed sheets. She pulled the warm covers over her head and drifted off to sleep within moments.

Glynda awoke in the morning with remnants of her dreams floating away like kettle steam. A recollection of jet black and blond hair intertwined on the same head confused her as the dream hadn't been bad, but she couldn't grasp hold of the meaning of what it had actually been about. She tried to forget about it as she stepped into a nice warm shower.

The rooms Dumbledore had set up for her had taken care of anything she was likely to need for her overnight stay. There were even some robes in her size hanging in the wardrobe. She felt strange putting them on at first since she had been used only to muggle clothing for the past sixteen years.

Just as Glynda was finishing making herself presentable, a knock came at her door. Dumbledore stood and smiled at her.

"Good morning Glynda. Sleep well?" he didn't wait for an answer. "Could you join me back in my office for breakfast please? We have a lot more to discuss."

Back in Dumbledores office again, under calmer circumstances, Glynda could finally take in the surroundings. She had never had cause to be inside the headmasters office in her schooldays here at Hogwarts, but she imagined that the timeless décor and atmosphere had probably been the same back then. Many curious gadgets and trinkets occupied her troubled mind as Dumbledore served up a large plate of fried breakfast. Portraits of previous head teachers caught her eye as they dashed in and out of their frames. As Dumbledore handed her a plate, her focus rested on an enormous old and dusty spell book laid open on Dumbledores' desk. From her seat she couldn't see what was on the open page, but her attention wandered to the book several times during breakfast.

The conversation hadn't been too taxing for her yet. Mainly queries regarding her rooms and sleep and pleasant gossip about teachers and pupils from her era at Hogwarts. It made Glynda feel quite normal again to hear how some of her old and some-forgotten friends were getting on in life. Her heart twinged when she thought of the fact that she couldn't return any relevant gossip. She had been close to tears when Dumbledore had gently told her about the death of her school friend Lily. She had drifted apart from Lily while they were still at school and hadn't spoken since. It had had a lot to do with Glynda's relationship with Lucius and that fact had left Glynda with some resentment towards Lily as she'd always been supportive of Lily's relationship with the immature Potter boy. Eventually, as breakfast ended, the interaction became more serious.

"Do you think you would feel up to being reacquainted with Lucius tonight?" Dumbledore asked. Glynda felt her heart skip a beat. 'Tonight!' she thought, 'Oh, my God!' Truthfully, her heart was desperate to see him again and it fought with her brain to try to get her excited. Her head was sending out different signals. Or rather, the signals didn't generate excitement. They did raise a great many questions though.

"I'm ready to see him again Professor. I think I'm ready to get some answers from him." Dumbledore nodded. He looked thoughtful. "Will I be alone?" Glynda asked tentatively.

"If you want to be." Dumbledore said with indifference. "We will have to discuss some things together at some point, but you can have some time in private to discuss personal matters."

"Does he know I'm here?"

"Lucius and Narcissa are aware that I have been tracking you down. I had initially planned to have Draco protected in this manner by Narcissa, but found out the complications and obtained their permission to find you. Draco knows nothing of you or the danger that he is in. He believes Narcissa to be his mother. I will leave it up to you and Lucius to decide what to do about that."

"Will I bee able to see Draco?" Her tone became eager.

"Until we have devised a plan of action, it would be safer to remain within your, or my rooms. I'll have more comfortable rooms laid out for you in the Gryffindor tower. Perhaps it will make you feel more at home. The dungeons are a bit chilly at this time of year. Severus will be meeting with us here at lunch when his classes are over."

"Classes?" Glynda realised what he meant. "Severus teaches here then?"

"He is our potions master and head of Slytherin house." Glynda raised her eyebrows in mild surprise.

Just then an owl flew in the window and dropped a newspaper in front of Dumbledore. While he dealt with paying the owl and scanning the headlines, Glynda took a moment to gather her thoughts.

Oh, how different her life was from this time yesterday. Yesterday morning she was concerned with processing samples for analysis in her lab, yet today she was worried about the grave danger her son, who she had not seen since birth, was in and what she had to do to protect him. It suddenly dawned on her; 'Why do I have to perform the spell? I've to put the same protection on Draco that Severus put on me. Dumbledore said Draco needed protection from his natural mother, but Severus isn't my mother!' She snorted out loud at that thought. Dumbledore looked up questioningly.

"I've just been wondering what this spell involves. The one I have to perform on Draco." She explained."

"Didn't Severus explain last night?"

"I suppose I really didn't give him much of a chance." She admitted. "Severus said he performed the same spell on me, but why does it have to be me, Dracos natural mother, who puts it on him? Can't Severus perform it?" Dumbledore started on an answer, but Glynda cut in again. "It's not that I won't help. I will. Whatever I can do, but it's also that I haven't even done any magic for so long."

Dumbledore looked slightly cross.

"It seems that Severus has still withheld some information that I feel he should have told you." He continued quickly. "However, it is not my place to tell you, so I won't and I ask you not to question me."

"What about the spell?" she pushed.

"Most of the rituals are detailed in this spell book." Dumbledore rose and retrieved the enormous leather-bound spell book from his desk. It was obviously very old. "It is a _very_ complex spell requiring the use of some potions and transfiguration. Severus will assist you with most of it. We will plan some time for you to get ready for the spell after we have discussed it with Lucius tonight." He put the book down in front of her and she slicked through the pages, looking at the pictures and symbols.

"I still don't understand why Severus can't do the whole spell on Draco." Glynda said.

"My dear, I asked you not to question me. However, Severus is very economical with his details, so I might have to interfere slightly. I will ask you now to take this book back to your rooms and have a read through the rituals to be performed and the requirements for each part. I will summon you when Severus arrives."


	5. Spells of the Heart

**Chapter 4**

The walk back through the school from Dumbledores office to her rooms in the dungeons, gave Glynda the opportunity to savor the atmosphere of being back.  The halls and corridors held many memories.  Recollections of time before misery.  Everything was rosy.  She smiled and laughed, once upon a time.  The pupils were in their classes. Only ghosts of Glyndas schooldays wandered around.  She pictured herself as an eleven-year-old waiting in the entrance hall to be sorted into Gryffindor.  She saw herself and her classmates at fourteen trying to make their way to the observatory while the staircases kept changing direction.  As she descended further into the castle, she remembered Lucius grabbing her arm and pulling her into the darkness for their first embrace.  It made her feel warm, despite the chilliness of the dungeons.

            Light spilled out from an open door of a classroom half way along the corridor she was on.  As she approached she could hear the gentle bubbling and hissing of many cauldrons brewing.  The potions classroom.  She remembered.  Above the gentle sound of plants and roots being sliced, she could hear a deep, silky voice, hauntingly familiar.  Glynda moved to the edge of the doorframe to watch without being seen.  Snape was leaning over a short tubby boy who looked like he was about to collapse with nerves.

"I distinctly told you to add the dried toadstool _after_ you had stirred it anticlockwise five times." Glynda noticed that the whole class was deliberately concentrating on their own work, some others also rather nervously. "How many times do I have to ask you to pay attention Longbottom?  Ten points from Gryffindor for your severe inability to apply your tiny brain."  At that Snape swept back to the front of the class.  Glynda quickly carried on down the corridor before he had the chance to turn around and see her.

'He's obviously not trying to be Teacher of the Year' she thought.  She wondered if his classes were all so controlled with fear, or if he was just in a particularly vindictive mood that day.  Her thoughts stayed on that subject well after she was back and settled in her rooms.

            Glynda had settled herself in a chair at a desk, so she could have a thorough examination of Dumbledores' spell book.  _Spells of the Heart_ was the title printed on the front in age-worn gold lettering.  Some of the pages were torn at the edges and several were damaged where some sort of liquid had been spilled on it.  Some of the stains looked like blood.  Glynda was careful not to touch those, as she flicked through the thick pages.

            Some of the spells were immensely complicated and had results like a preserved memory from dying lovers or loved relatives, or mending someone else's broken heart.  Years and years worth of notes, amendments and comments had been made to many of the scripts.  She fingered her way through to the protection spell and started to read the background and expected limitations of the results of the spell.  She found out that the spell was originally cast by an ancient queen to ward off her murderous nephews from her son, who was heir to her throne.  She had been informed of a plot to kill her son that would result in the eldest nephew becoming monarch on her demise.  Her spell caused every murder attempt to fail, but eventually, the nephews hired someone else to do the deed and her son was killed.  In defiance of her nephews, she outlived them both, so that they never got the throne.  The background was not giving Glynda much reassurance about performing this spell.

            It can only protect someone against a few choice people, she learned.  'Well I hope Dumbledore knows exactly who's after Draco then' she worried.  Glynda then went on to read about the processes of the spell.

            Firstly a potion had to be brewed to link the caster with the subject.  It looked quite basic, but certain rituals had to be performed on most of the ingredients.  There were even some sub-potions that had to be mixed into the main one.  It didn't look out of her ability though.  Potions had been one of her strong classes at school.  She had chosen chemistry at her muggle career, as it seemed the closest thing to it without becoming a chef.

            The final potion had to be drunk by the caster prior to the first incantation.  This was supposed to open a channel from the heart to the subject.  The rituals at this stage started to become more sinister and complex.

'Oh my God, I have to draw blood!' she realised in horror.  Her queasiness didn't subside as she read on.  This spell involved a lot of pain on her part.  She held her mouth as she took in the details.  The ritual was to allow the subjects name to be cut into the casters heart by a magic blood-link.  This allowed the final incantation of protection to be cast, on direct confrontation with those who wish to cause harm to the subject.

            These were the most complex rituals Glynda had ever seen.  And to have to confront the people who were after Draco.  Was this going to be some sort of sacrifice?  What were these people like?  Would they try to kill her too?  The thoughts swirled in her head with anger, fear and frustration.

            The footnotes of the spell gave criteria of the caster and the subject.  It seemed that Draco would have to be in a dreamless sleep for the blood-link ritual.  The criteria for the caster were more detailed.  An interesting thought finally entered her mind.  This was supposed to be the spell that Severus had cast on her.  'Dumbledore must have made some mistake.  It must be a different spell.  Severus wouldn't have carried out all of this for me, why would he?  He wouldn't have been able to anyway, he's not my mother.'  She read the criterion.  The caster must be the natural birth mother of the subject and have pure, loving reasons for the spell to be cast.  Glynda summarised the criteria in her mind.

The final note at the end of the spell gave her all the answers to her thoughts and brought with them a million new unanswered questions.  In addition to the above criteria of the caster, one other person may perform the protection spell on the subject.  This person must be truly and honestly in love with the subject and in being so, to perform the spell, must devote their life to the subject forever, thwarting all others and being faithful to the subjects' heart and soul until the end of their days. 

Glynda read, re-read and read this final note again.  It just didn't seem to make sense, yet is all seemed to fit together so concisely.  Severus was in love with her?  He had endured this agony to protect her and had spent his whole life having been sworn only to her.  She looked at the spell book in shock.  She wasn't any more startled when a rap came loudly at her door.  As she looked up, mouth wide open, the door opened slowly.  She couldn't have been any more taken aback at the sight of Severus Snape stepping through the door.

"The headmaster has asked me to summon you to his office."

He waited for a response, but when he got none, he glanced at the open book in front of her.  A scared, almost nervous look spread across his face as he realised what she had been reading and what she had found out.  She looked him deep in the eyes and searched out his soul. He really was in love with her.  She could see the nervous desire in his eyes.  His face gave nothing away. 

            Neither of them spoke for a few moments.  Finally she rose and approached him.  Without breaking eye contact, she reached her arms around his neck and drew him into a hug.  His arms circled her waist.  She felt him squeeze her and pull her closer into him.  For what seemed like an eternity, they held each other firmly, yet lovingly, in their first embrace.


	6. The Love of Lucius

I've finally reached the first smutty part of my story. Please do not read if you would prefer not to imagine any of the characters in the story in sexual situations. For those of you who do like sex scenes, please be forewarned that the scene in this chapter becomes quite violent and slightly rape-esque. Please let me know what you think. Anonymous reviews welcome. Hugs RB.

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**Chapter 5**

'It feels so good to be held like this again.' Glynda thought. Just to be held in loving arms again. 'But it's Snape!' she kept thinking. It felt so surreal. She had never been this close to the man before. Yet now her face was buried in his neck. His hair brushed her face and she could breathe in the fragrant, manly scent of him. His breathing was short at first, but became deeper as they held each other. Glynda closed her eyes tight and squeezed him. He squeezed her gently in return and sighed quietly. Glynda noticed everything about his closeness, but a niggling thought in her mind finally came to the front. 'Imagine it's Lucius her mind told her. For one fleeting moment, her life was rosy again. The thought of Lucius hugging her so lovingly was more than she could contemplate. 'But it's Snape' she told herself again, and at that she tried to withdraw from him, but he pulled her again into him.

"Please don't," he whispered. "Just a moment longer."

Glynda sighed and squeezed him one last time before prying herself away from him. As she stepped back she saw him open his eyes slowly and look right into her soul.

"Severus" she began "I had no idea… Never had any idea…"

He interrupted "I never wanted you to know."

"When?" Glynda asked, "When did you start loving me?"

"Glynda, please!" he started in a flustered tone. "We have to concentrate on performing the protection spell on Draco."

"Yes, but Severus, this is…. So unexpected. Why have you kept this from me?"

"Glynda, there were more lives at stake than just ours if Lucius ever knew how I felt about you. I was a spy for Dumbledore against Lucius and the Dark Lord. If I showed any remorse for you they'd have killed me and all the other people that I was working to protect. It was a great risk for me to even have tried to protect you. The Dark Lord can get inside your mind and read your thoughts. I worked so hard to avoid you when you were with Lucius. I couldn't risk anyone knowing my feelings." A look of deep remorse came over his face. "I'm so sorry you were hurt Glynda." He looked away from her, sounding choked.

"Severus, there are no lives at stake now, you can tell me what this means. I know the truth now anyway, so there's nothing to hide from me, is there?"

"There is still Dracos life at stake. Please come with me to see the headmaster."

"Oh, Severus please…."

"Glynda" he butted in sharply "You will never be able to love me, so let's leave it at that." He turned to leave the room.

It then struck Glynda what all this meant for Severus. He had been in love with her for so long, but couldn't ever be with her, or even be with someone else. The protection spell had bound him to a life of loneliness and unrequited love. It hadn't just been her life that had been ripped apart. As he had said last night, he'd had sixteen years of misery too. She now knew what he meant. She felt empathy with the man, but then realised that she was the one who was causing his hurt, and there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't love him. She loved Lucius, and Severus knew that.

When he reached the door, he held it open and waited for her to walk through. As she reached him, she stopped and caught his eyes.

"I'm sorry." She said, and made her way to Dumbledores' office.

The rest of the afternoon became very technical. Dumbledore, Severus and Glynda painstakingly went through the spell in detail to try and come up with a plan of action. Although Severus had performed the rituals before, Glynda seemed to find his organisational skills a bit on the disorganised side. Her experience in working as a muggle scientist had given rise to exceptional methodical time management skills. By dinnertime, they had devised a timetable that would fit between Severus's classes, so that they could both work on the potions and practise the rituals. A few weeks work would take them to the final stages of the spell.

As it usually did, all the studious thought kept Glynda's mind away from harrowing emotion, but tonight it was short lived.

"Lucius will be meeting us here at seven o'clock tonight." Dumbledore informed her. "Do you feel up to it?"

She registered the fact the Severus had stopped writing notes, but he didn't look up.

"I'll be OK." She tried to reassure herself as well as Dumbledore.

"Let's adjourn until then. Severus they will be expecting you in the great hall for dinner. I'll join Glynda in her rooms for something to eat."

"Oh, I'll be OK to eat on my own. You can go to the great hall if you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It'll give me chance to settle into my new rooms back in the Gryffindor tower and I'll need some thinking time to get my head together."

Severus started to pack up their notes without showing any signs of hearing the conversation.

"Very well. I'll see you back here at seven."

As seven o'clock approached, Glynda was feeling sick with nerves. Her attempt at dinner had been to push her food around the plate until it was cold. Her mind had become quite numb, but she kept trying to push herself into being calm and relaxed. This proved to be unsuccessful when a sharp knock came at her door and Glynda jumped with fright. Her heart rate increased instantly.

Snape. Again.

"How are you?" he enquired. She looked at him for a moment, and then glanced away.

"Ready to go." She said with determination.

The walk through the school was unhurried. At several points throughout the journey, Glynda felt that Severus was occupied in his own thought. At occasions, it seemed that he wanted to say something, but he held himself back.

When they finally reached Dumbledores' office, he was positively stifling something inside himself. At the last moment before going through the door, he caught her arm and gently spun her round to face him.

"Glynda, I know and understand how you feel about Lucius, but please know that I will be here for you whenever you might need me. Don't let your new knowledge get in the way of that."

She understood what he meant. Somehow, without realising it, she had begun to respect Severus as a man, without her previous ideas clouding her judgement. He was in some essence, a friend. And he was a friend that she would be able to take comfort from, if she needed to. She placed her other arm on his to remove it from her person. As he drew away, she gave him a reassuring squeeze, and tried to muster a smile.

With a deep breath, she stepped through the door. The scene did not do much to calm her. Dumbledore looked up from his guests with a grave expression. As soon as she registered the occupants of the room, a spindly woman with short blonde hair turned sharply to look at her. A figure that had his back to her had a long mane of blonde hair tied back in an eloquent bottle-green ribbon. He turned slowly to face her, with his back to the woman. Glynda saw Lucius's face look upon her own, and was sure she saw it enlightened, for just a moment. His face then became unfamiliar to her. His eyes had grown so dark. He looked at her and she felt instantly humiliated. She saw the fleeting moment of her past disappear to be replaced by a look of disgust directed at her. It took all her inner strength not to run screaming like a baby from the doorway. She looked at him and had no idea what sort of expression she was conveying. She had no idea that she would still be attracted to him. She did not contemplate the fact that she would feel hatred towards him. Overall, the only thing she knew was a certainty that did not surprise her was that she wanted to be with him and to have him hold her close and speak tenderly to her. His reaction quenched all hopes of anything like that happening. He registered her presence with an unimpressed nod and turned back to face Dumbledore.

The meeting seemed to pass in a blur. The details that were discussed only shallowly registered with Glynda. It came to agreement that Lucius and Narcissa would let Glynda perform the protection spell on Draco. They were openly unhappy about it, but their own research had come up with no alternatives. Lucius had made reference to his 'contacts' being unable to find any way of stopping the vigilantes, so this was the only possible option of protecting Draco. She mostly noticed the interactions that passed between the guests with everyone else. Lucius barely looked at her, and maintained an air of superiority throughout the conversation. He addressed Severus like a close friend and kept making comments to him that amused Lucius, but failed even to soften Severus's scowl. Narcissa fulfilled the role of concerned mother, making Glynda instantly dislike her. Her emotions came across as cold and rehearsed. Every so often, Glynda caught her looking at her with an appraising expression. Then sometimes, with the same look of disgust that Lucius had directed at her earlier.

Glynda was amazed at how strong she was performing in this meeting. She had choked back several near-tears moments. She had not, however, managed to keep her feelings for Lucius at bay. She could barely take her eyes off him. Whether, he realised or not, she couldn't tell. She was fascinated by the distinguished persona he portrayed. Ignoring, the darkness that had cast a shadow over his eyes, he hadn't changed. The fine age-lines that had formed around his eyes and neck only added to how utterly drawn to him she was. His occasional lapses into amusement brought back the same one-sided smile that had previously left her weak at the knees. Her emotions were sent into overdrive when he had spoken of their son and his fear for him. He was every essence of the protective father-figure. It was the exact projection of how Glynda had dreamt of how he would feel about their son, if they had ever been a family together. His tone left her completely in awe of him. She still loved him, deeply, deeper than she knew she did. Seeing him brought her feelings back with a force. She had no idea that Severus had been watching her every reaction just as intently as she had been watching Lucius.

Dumbledore finished explaining to Lucius and Narcissa the procedures involved in the spell and how Glynda and Severus would be tackling the different stages. As he began to draw a conclusion to the meeting with a promise of them being kept informed of every stage of the process, Glynda's reserve gave into her.

"I want to meet Draco." She directed at Lucius and Narcissa. They both turned to look at her. Her eyes met with Lucius and they held their gaze. She felt her heart start to beat faster. His expression was blank at first. She caught him glance towards Narcissa for a moment. His face became a smirk that stretched to his eyes.

"Of course." He spoke with slight amusement. "My wife and I will hasten to inform Draco of his heritage. Although the choice to meet _you,_ will rest with our boy." Glynda didn't miss his implication.

"He is _my_ son and I have been kept from him long enough. I want a chance to explain myself to him." Her acidic tone appeared to take them by surprise.

"I assure you, I will _explain_ your absence to him in a most unbiased way."

"Perhaps, this should be discussed between you in private." Dumbledore suggested.

"I don't think that will be necessary" piped up Narcissa. "Lucius and I have already made our decision on how to deal with Draco." Glynda couldn't believe the nerve of this woman. Did she really think that Glynda was going to just let them continue to play happy families with her son? She turned to Lucius.

"I want to see Draco and I want him to know the truth. Despite this issue, you owe me some explanations, so maybe a private discussion _would_ be in order." She was surprised at how in control she sounded. Lucius raised his eyebrows in delight and turned to Narcissa.

"It seems that this won't wait. Return home and I will join you shortly." He instructed. Glynda was pleased to see a very disgruntled Narcissa sweep from the room. As she turned to watch her leave, her attention was caught by Severus. He was looking straight at her with his brow furrowed. 'Doesn't that man ever smile?' she thought. As if he read her thoughts, his expression changed to offended and he rose to address the headmaster.

"If this meeting is adjourned I will retire headmaster." Dumbledore nodded. Snape continued "I will be in my rooms if you need me." On his final words he looked meaningfully at Glynda and widened his eyes as if to reinforce his point. She understood. "Lucius." He bowed shortly, and Lucius nodded in return. Snape left the room.

"Where shall we have this um… 'private discussion'?" Lucius enquired.

"Glynda has rooms in the Gryffindor tower." Dumbledore informed. "I would like to talk to you when you have finished Glynda. Please return here when Lucius leaves. Goodnight Lucius."

"Dumbledore." With a nod, and they left for Glynda's rooms.

They walked in silence through the castle and entered her rooms. He maintained his air of distinction and superiority. She tried her best to remain confident, but was aware of how her feelings might defy her. He swept into her room and turned to face her.

"You look truly wonderful Glynda." He said unexpectedly. He had leaned back onto the mantelpiece and gave her another lopsided smile. He looked so suave. She almost melted. What was he playing at? Oh how she desperately wanted to rush into his arms. She looked at him without answer.

"Aren't you going to talk to me? You seemed so eager back in Dumbledores office." He teased with a chuckle. His eyes twinkled, but with a dark edge. She wanted to be closer to those eyes. She took a step forward and stopped. He looked away from her and picked up a trinket from the mantelpiece. She followed his line of vision and watched him twiddle it in one hand. She breathed harder. She wanted those hands to be touching her. Her desire for him was building up. It must have showed in her eyes. Lucius looked at her and chuckled.

"Dear, dear Glynda. How I've missed you." His eyes narrowed and he left his place at the mantelpiece and moved towards her. The purpose of this surrealist enactment finally met her.

"Why Lucius?" she pleaded. "That's all I want to know. Why did you do that to me?" Her confidence had gone and she became a lost little girl again. His amusement subsided.

"Because I had to." His tone was so smug. "You and I were not suitable Glynda. You must have realised that by now." She struggled not to cry. "We had our fun. We were never meant to be forever."

"We _were_ forever Lucius." She barked. "Our vows to each other promised forever and I know that we _both_ meant it." Her tears began again.

"I did mean it." He stepped up close to her and held her chin up to look at him. She relished his touch and her breathing became deep again. "I just couldn't mean it with a mudblood." She broke away from him.

"But you knew that before we married and you still loved me. I thought it didn't matter to you." She was almost screaming at him. He caught hold of her again and despite her hurt and anger, she couldn't let herself fight his contact.

"People change dear Glynda." Her name on his lips sent shivers through her body. She saw him feel it. "I still want you Glynda." He paused for more effect. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted him so badly. Her body started to react to being so close to him. All her nerves became sensitive all at once. A recently familiar tingly feeling formed in her stomach and the longer he looked into her eyes, the lower the feeling moved. A feeling that she hadn't felt in years formed between her legs. She felt her arousal heat her body. She breathed hard and fast. His smug smile disappeared from her vision as he leant in to kiss her. She closed her eyes and their lips met. He pressed his tongue through her lips and positively ravished her mouth. She couldn't control herself if she wanted to. She had needed this for sixteen years. She pressed up against his body and met his ferocity with her own. His leg pressed between her legs to push them apart and she felt her underwear stick to her juices. His hands were roaming all over her back and she reached up to run her hands through his hair. Oh God, it felt just like it used to. Soft, but wiry. She massaged his scalp and opened his mouth wider with the wandering of her tongue. He let out a small moan that vibrated deep into her throat. He pressed his hips into her and she felt the mound of his arousal. Her mind had stopped assessing things and she lost herself in the situation. The only endpoint she could envisage was to have Lucius Malfoy right then and there. One of her hands slipped down and cupped his bottom. She squeezed it gently and pulled it so his manhood dug into her. His hands began stroking her sides and quickly they were on her breasts, massaging and jiggling. Without breaking their kiss, he hastily unbuttoned her robes to expose her lace-covered breasts. He moved the material of her bra to the side and took a handful of her flesh in his hand. His thumbs caressed her nipples that were protruding like small bullets. His realisation of her obvious arousal made him reach straight for her waistband. He jerked her hip away from him to allow his hand access down her trousers. His hand came down over her lacy panties and cupped around her lips. He moved the flimsy material aside and began to finger her. Her liquids flowed freely. He coated his middle finger in her cum and circled her enlarged nub. She moaned loudly. In encouragement he sank his finger inside her and poked her walls. She opened her legs wider and he reached further inside her. As he stroked her most sensitive wall, she was in complete ecstasy. Her hand had wandered around his waist and was massaging his bulge through his clothes. They finally broke contact and began to rapidly undress each other.

When they became naked and lusting with desire, they stood and looked at each other. His eyes wandered all over her body. She saw sanction in his eyes. His physique had barely aged. He still had healthy looking muscles under pale skin. His body was dusted with light brown hair that accumulated around his genitals. His member stuck out eagerly with a deep purple head, ready to explode. They joined together again and Lucius picked her up and walked her over to a chair. Her legs wrapped around his body as he lowered onto the arm of the chair. He supported her as she leaned back to allow him entry. He used his other hand to guide himself into her. His length entered her easily and he pumped away at her. She let go of his neck and put her arms behind her on the seat of the chair and let her any remaining inhibitions go. Oh it was bliss! The head of his penis kept banging at her vital spot. She leant back and balanced on one arm and rubbed her breasts with her free hand. His rhythm became faster. She looked up into his eyes and was shocked. His eyes had darkened and had a malevolent glint. He smiled evilly at her.

"Do you like that mudblood?" he sneered. He kept pumping into her. This wasn't how she remembered it. It snapped her back into reality. What was he doing to her?

"Lucius?" she wavered.

"Is this what you've been waiting for?" He asked. This wasn't right. Her vagina dried up quickly. His pumping became sore, but he didn't stop. She looked at him with fear.

"Lucius, please stop." She pleaded. He looked at her and laughed. She didn't want this anymore. She wanted his love. She was being his whore. It had to stop.

She began pulling herself away from him, but he held her in place.

"Lucius, get off me. Let me go." She pushed against his shoulders. The friction was burning her insides. "I've gone dry, please stop, it's hurting."

He kept driving into her. Faster and faster.

"No Lucius. Don't!" His breathing signposted that he was close to the edge. After a few more pumps, he withdrew his member from her and held it over her stomach and began pumping himself dry. His thick and creamy cum shot over her body. She scrambled off the chair and moved swiftly to the other side of the room. He began panting and manoeuvred to sit himself in the chair still stroking his penis. He rubbed his juice over his shaft and tried to catch his breath. She stared at him in shock and he looked up at her.

"Don't worry; my seed didn't get you this time." He snorted.

"What are you trying to do to me Lucius?" she begged. He looked at her standing shivering and laughed heartily. He stood and went over to their discarded robes. He picked up her garments and threw them at her and proceeded to dress himself. Glynda instinctively began putting the robes on.

"You know Glynda, you would have made a really excellent mother." He said as he tidied up his hair. "And a very whorish wife." At that he bowed his head and made his way out the door. She stared at the closed door in disbelief and sank to her knees and cried.

An hour later, Glynda found herself in her car, speeding along the winding mountain roads away from the castle. She had dried her tears and realised she needed to revert back to her normality. Back to when she had the hope of Lucius's love. The road ahead dipped in and out of sight as she slipped down a gear and felt the acceleration push her into her seat. She turned the volume of her stereo up to blare heavy guitar and drumbeats into her head. On and on the roads went, and the music just lifted her heart. She reached a point high over the landscape and stopped.

Looking towards the castle, now in the far distance, she thought. About Lucius. About Draco. About Severus. About everything she had endured since leaving work yesterday. She had found a friend in Severus, nothing more. She had the hope of the love of her son. She had lost her one and only true love. Lucius despised her. He had used and abused her, yet she was only sorrowful for the loss of his love. She wasn't angry, or spiteful, or even bitter. But she still wanted his love and was broken by the loss of him again.

Glynda never loved again after she lost him sixteen years ago, and she was resolute, that she would never be in love with anyone other than Lucius again. With that in mind, she drove back to Hogwarts to strive for the love of her son.

'Oh crap!' she thought on arrival at the school. Dumbledore was standing outside the main door looking concerned. She parked up and rushed to him apologetically. Using excuses of Lucius upsetting her, but leaving out the finer details, she was given a sympathetic nod as Dumbledore turned to look at the skies.

"Now that I know you are OK, I'm a bit concerned about relocating my potions master." Glynda glanced up and realised that Severus must have taken to his broom to find her. "I'm an old man, and I need my sleep. You won't mind waiting to tell him you're safe, will you?" It was more of an order than a question, and with that he had entered the castle.

Glynda sighed in deserved exasperation. 'Where are you Snape!' she asked the heavens. Half an hour passed with only owls and bats flying in and out of Hogwarts airspace. Finally, a very overgrown bat appeared from above and landed right next to her on the entrance steps dropping its broomstick in haste.

"Glynda, are you OK?"

"I'm fine; I just went for a drive to clear my head. I forgot I was supposed to see Dumbledore after Lucius left."

"Did he hurt you?"

"What…. Why….?" She was taken aback. Did he know what Lucius had done to her?

"Look, Glynda, I know what he's like. And you were in a very vulnerable situation with him, and I…." he trailed off. She once again saw the hurt she was causing him.

"Thanks for the concern, but I'm fine now, but I'm really sleepy so let's go to bed."

He held a short intake of breath and looked at her with widened eyes. "No, I mean… I don't mean…. I need sleep." She cursed herself for her inappropriate choice of phrase. Glynda noticed him regain his composure by putting a scowl back on his face and gliding past her into the castle with a quickened pace, trying to assert his authority. She watched after him. 'Well your intimidating persona might work on school kids, but it doesn't work on me.' She returned to her rooms and had a peaceful nights sleep.

**A/N **I'd really like to know what you think of the story so far and the character development. Please read and review.

Thanks to Lucidity and ThouandI for your support. Did you like this chapter? Hugs RB


	7. Walking on Eggshells

Many appologies for the delay. Didn't mean to keep you hanging on. Here's Chapter 6, Read and review please!!! Hugs RB.

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**Chapter 6**

Sunlight poured into Glynda's rooms and roused her from sleep. She rolled over, screwing up her eyes to try to recreate darkness to allow her a longer rest. As she moved, she felt the protest of the muscles inside her thighs. The events of the previous night flooded back to her instantly.

Glynda sighed and rubbed her soreness. She still felt the mental and physical hurt that Lucius had given her. For a while, her thoughts dwelled on him and her gentle caressing moved closer to her opening. Images of Lucius standing naked in front of her made her motions more deliberate. She recollected the feeling of him being pressed up against her in a passionate embrace. Her fantasy continued. Her fingers slowly worked their way into her moist gap. She brought her legs up and spread them to imagine Lucius being on top of her. Wriggling and sighing, she let out a quiet moan and brought her other hand into the action. She imagined his long shaft being inserted into her and began moving her hips as if he was really there. She massaged her hard nub and slowly brought herself to climax, breathing his name as she relaxed. She rolled onto her side and tried to catch an extra five minutes sleep, with a satisfied smile on her face.

By late evening, Glynda was in the potions room with Severus preparing ingredients for the first potion. She had spent most of the day in her rooms studying potions textbooks to remind her of some long-forgotten preparation techniques. When Severus's classes had finished, they began their work. He put a bundle of willow roots on her workspace and gathered up the dried poppy seeds that she had ground to a fine powder. She noticed that he had barely looked her in the eye since she had arrived in his classroom. Occasionally, she had looked up from her work and saw him avert his gaze away from her. His instructions had been concise, but not cold. Glynda was startled when she began to slice her roots and he spoke.

"Lucius removed Draco from classes this morning." He spoke cautiously and waited to gauge a response. Glynda looked up at him, but his attention was focussed on the heather pods he was muddling, although he wasn't actually putting any effort into his actions. "I just thought you might like to be kept informed" he finished dryly and began viciously working the pods into the mortar.

Glynda tutted to herself. He was really frustrating her. Did he have to keep trying to pretend that he didn't care? It was obvious that he was concerned for her, but he was continually hiding his feelings behind cruel, snide remarks. She was too tiresome to try to get him to act like a human, so she continued to work in silence.

By the time all the ingredients had been diced, sliced and laid out in order, Glynda could feel sleep weighing her down.

"I'll be off then." She announced. He looked at her for a moment, and nodded curtly.

"Please make sure the door is secured as you leave." he said as he entered his store cupboard to put back some of the jars that they had been using. Glynda shook her head and returned to her rooms.

The next morning, Severus had no classes, so they began the process of doing some rituals on the potion ingredients and setting up some other ingredients to infuse through various liquids such as phoenix tears and dragon milk. Severus had been just as short and cold to her as he had been the previous day. So much so, that she had felt like a student a few times throughout the morning, and had to be very careful not to call him 'Professor'. He had guided her through the steps detailed in the spell book as if she was an incompetent student. On more than one occasion, she saw him becoming frustrated with her obvious lack of wand skills. He continually left her to practice the rituals on her own while he worked on the other sub potions. She was really beginning to reach the end of her tether. 'He's completely intolerable' she thought to herself as he left the room with a steaming flask of phoenix tears.

The atmosphere was not helped by the fact that she had woken up too early from a nightmare. Her mood had been grumpy from the outset, so even the smallest of Severus's idiosyncrasies irritated her. Her mind swirled with remnants of the images she had seen through the night. Draco, whose face had no substance in her subconscious anymore, was trying to reach out for her, but was being held back by dark empowering shadows. She had been really upset by the nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep afterwards. She had taken a stroll by the lake before the sun rose, and then returned to her room with an eerie sense of someone watching her.

As Severus returned, he cleared his throat as an announcement that he was about to speak.

"I have a class shortly; we will have to continue after dinner." He began to tidy their work away.

"Well I hope you're not as impossible with the students." She said with some spite. He stopped abruptly and scowled at her. She realised that she had went too far. She hadn't really meant to have said her thought out aloud, but she was very on edge.

"Perhaps you would like to work on the potion on your own this evening." he spat at her. "I have matters out with Hogwarts to deal with this evening." Glynda realised he was serious. "I'll make sure all the equipment is in order for you. Please don't disturb anything else." He turned and began waving his wand at the blackboard and the instructions for the next lesson took form. Glynda, gathered her notes and left.

Glynda's proceedings with the potion were short lived that evening. After arriving in Snape's rooms, the head of Albus Dumbledore popped into the fireplace.

"Glynda, sorry to interrupt your work. I've got something I would like to show you. Could you nip into my office? Just use the fire, the password is 'Rainbow Drops'."

Soon after, Glynda was sitting with a very hospitable Dumbledore. One large mug of hot chocolate later, Glynda questioned him.

"What was it that you wanted to show me Professor?"

Dumbledore shuffled slightly then spoke,

"Lucius is being particularly difficult right now. You will meet Draco soon, but Lucius is not making it easy for either of us by stalling. He took Draco home yesterday, but I managed to persuade him to let him come back to school with the promise that I wouldn't let you meet him until Lucius says so. I would like to give you the opportunity to see Draco now."

Glynda's heart began to race, but she was still confused. This showed on her face, and Dumbledore chuckled.

"Have you ever wondered how I manage to know what is going on all over the school at once? How I can send teachers to halt mischief and still monitor dark conversations? I have this handy little device to help me."

Dumbledore produced a large silver membrane shaped like an oversized hat.

"Only I can control what can be seen through the eyes of this Observitall, but I can tune it in and let you see Draco. At the moment, he is with his peers in the great hall. By putting this over your head, you will be inside what the Observitall sees and you will feel like you are sitting in the hall with the other students. You will not be able to leave the hall, or have any substance or be able to interfere with anything while wearing the Observitall. Well, I can, but you won't be able to!"

Glynda was amazed by the device. She looked at it in awe and began to get flustered at the thought of seeing Draco.

"Do you want to use it?"

Glynda thought for a moment. Her son was one word away. She had never felt so excited.

"Yes."

Glynda slowly placed the Observitall on her head and immediately felt it gain weight like it was drowning her. It seemed to grow tenfold in size and enraptured her whole being. With a loud pop she felt the increasing weight disappear to find herself sitting in Dumbledore's chair in the Great Hall. She immediately turned to explain herself to Professor McGonnagal before remembering that no one could see her. Still slightly wary, she tested it out.

"Erm… hello?" no one made any reaction.

Convinced that no one could see or hear her, she slowly began to look around her. Barely anything had changed since her schooldays. The four house tables were stretched out in front of her full of food and babbling students. The candles floated above the tables below the stormy night sky. She could hear the teachers at the head table converse and noted the absence of Snape. All other teachers were interacting quite animatedly.

After a few moments to adjust to her transportation to the Great Hall, her attention focussed on the reason for her being there and she looked towards the Slytherin table. Then she saw him. A mature looking boy, much like the rest, stood out only because of his silvery blonde hair that swept from his hairline to the nape of his neck. Before she knew it, she had left the head table and was gliding towards Draco.

He was Lucius all over. She couldn't take her eyes off him. He was talking discretely with two other Slytherin boys. Something he had said made them all laugh and as she approached, she was stunned by how amazingly perfect his smile was. Brightly white teeth shone out and his eyes almost disappeared as his hearty laugh lingered in her ears. She went even closer and stood across the table from him.

In her eyes, he was a vision of flawlessness. How desperately she wanted to take him in her arms and cuddle him forever. Her little boy. He was so grown up. A lump formed in her throat and tears filled her eyes. She smiled the biggest smile she had done for years.

"Oh, Draco." She sobbed, but no one heard her. She watched him intently. She stood over him and analysed his every move, talking, eating and laughing. She loved everything about him and even chuckled as she listened into his conversation. He spoke passionately about Quiddich while she learned that he was the Slytherin seeker. He also talked about his classes and his classmates.

Almost an hour passed, but Glynda had no concept of time, being too wrapped up in the schooldays gossip of the Slytherin table. Finally a hush came over the hall and every ones attention turned to the head table. Dumbledore had taken his place and was about to give some announcements. After a few comments about out of bounds areas of the castle, Glynda realised that his attention had turned to her.

"I'd also like to remind some people that they have _other_ things to do!" Dumbledore said mysteriously. A few people in the hall looked at him questioningly, but most people just passed it off as his usual idiosyncratic self.

Glynda nodded her head and looked once more at Draco. She reached up and felt the brim of the Observitall. The hall swirled out of focus and Glynda next found herself sitting in the same chair in Dumbledore's office. She was alone and could feel her heart beating at an accelerated rate. She was shaking, but felt something she had long forgotten… happiness. After a deep breath and large, invigorating smile, Glynda took some floo powder and returned to Snapes classroom.


	8. Secrets of the Heart

Thanks again for reviewing. Please keep them coming. If anyone else is reading this story, then please leave me a review - it doesn't have to be signed. I've been working on chapter 8 for ages now and can't seem to get the story down onto paper. Maybe some more inspiring reviews would help. Hugs RB.

**Chapter 7**

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The birds were singing and the day-break sun was resting on Glyndas pillow keeping her out-stretched hand in hazy warmth. Wonderful, peaceful morning enjoyments. Yet, there it was again, that incessant banging. This time followed by…

"Glynda!".

In a drowsy, freshly awoken state, Glynda realised with annoyance that it was Snape.

She moaned aloud and dragged herself out of bed and into her robes.

Bang, bang, bang, again.

"Alright!" she yelled reaching for the door. "I'm here, I'm here."

Not for the first time, Glynda found herself looking upon the dark, unhappy form in her doorway with a feeling of being an unruly student getting into trouble.

"You set the potion brewing in a pewter cauldron." Said Snape in his most scathing tone. She raised her eyebrows in question. "You were supposed to take one of the silver ones that I left out for you. The potion has been ruined. Can I leave you to do nothing on your own?" His tone became exasperated.

Glynda punched her head in frustration. She hadn't been paying close enough attention to what she had been doing the previous night. Her thoughts had kept going over the conversations she had listened into in the Great Hall.

"I'm so sorry Severus, I…" she began

"Sorry won't bring back the potion." Snape snapped. "You do realise that we are running out of time, don't you?" Now she really felt like she was 13 years old again. Her eyes focused on a spot on the floor and she bit her bottom lip.

"I saw Draco last night." She told him.

"Then you'll know what we're trying to protect." She met his furious eyes with sorrowful ones.

"I'll repeat everything. I'll start straight away. When do your classes finish?"

"It's the weekend Glynda. I have no classes. We can start now." She felt suddenly reassured about everything. His tone had become comforting. "Now, get dressed and come down to my classroom. I'll have some breakfast arranged for you."

At that she watched him turn to leave and closed the door.

On arrival in his classrooms, Glynda found Snape busy preparing some potions ingredients at his workbench. He was making good progress and was working swiftly. He acknowledged her arrival by splitting his bundle of orchid roots and placing them next to another set of preparation instruments. She took place next to him and began chopping.

"I'm really sorry Severus…about the potion…I really am."

"We'll get on with the new one a lot quicker if we get on with these roots." He said coldly.

"Oh please, don't be cross with me." She was wary of the fact that she was sounding like a whining student. "I'm sorry about calling you 'impossible'. I didn't mean to upset you. I'd really like to get along with you while we're working together."

Snape kept his head down and continued working.

"Severus?"

He stamped down his knife with a 'Hmph' and turned to look at her.

"Glynda, there is nothing I would like more than for us to have a productive working relationship, so can we please get to work?" He picked up his knife again and resumed chopping.

'Fine.' she thought, 'Let's just work in silence. Maybe I'm not sorry I called you 'impossible' after all.'

Sometime later, most of the ingredients for the potion base were ready to be combined and the only conversation that had passed was instruction.

"OK, I'll mix these together and start them stewing." Snape said. "There is some breakfast for you over there. We have time to stop for the moment." He indicated towards his chamber. Glynda washed her hands and went into the chamber where a lovely selection of breakfast was laid out. She was very grateful for his gesture of organising breakfast for her, but was also glad to be out of the stale environment of his presence. Had she really affected him that much by calling him 'impossible' to his face? Maybe he was just really regretting the whole protection spell thing she thought. Her mind went over what the spell book had said about him devoting his life to her. Maybe he had stopped loving her and was peeved off with having to be faithful to her for all his days she thought. As she pondered the reason for his unsociable behaviour, Snape entered the room.

"That's it stewing. We have about three hours before we have to add the next lot of ritualised ingredients." He looked at her sitting staring into space.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he questioned.

Glyndas attention focussed back on the food in front of her and she prepared herself some cereal. Snape poured himself some coffee and offered her a cup.

They sat quietly for a while.

"How long have you been a teacher here?" Glynda asked him.

"Fifteen years" he replied.

Glynda made what she hoped was a 'that's interesting' sort of sound. 'Why is this so difficult?' she thought.

"Have you been teaching Draco?" she tried again.

"Yes."

"Dumbledore let me use his Observitall to watch him last night. Lucius still won't let me meet him properly." Snape slowly drank his coffee. Glynda continued.

"It's the first time I've seen him since he was born." She smiled to herself. "He was wonderful." Glynda paused and reflected on her new memories of her son.

"What's he like in class?" she asked him eagerly. Snape looked away from her and shrugged.

"He's a good student." He said plainly.

"Is he intelligent?" she probed. Snape sat his coffee cup down and cleared his throat.

"He's not top of the class, but he's not as hopeless as some. He is very much Lucius's son in that he has the same attitudes and ways of performing in class. He does often remind me of you though." Snape stopped abruptly as though he had given too much information.

They sat in silence again. Glynda wondered what he meant by that, but from the way he stopped talking, she felt that it had a lot of remorse behind it. She contemplated how he must have seen Draco as a reminder of her. The spell book was going through her mind again.

"Can the spell be lifted?" she asked.

"What?"

"You know, the protection spell. Can the one you put on me be lifted? I just thought that maybe you would want to 'untie' yourself from me now that I'm not in danger."

Snape looked at her like he couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"You've read the spell book." He snapped.

Glynda looked bewildered. She'd managed to upset him again.

"There are only two sets of conditions that allow the spell to be cast. One is that it's the birth mother of the subject and the other is…well…" he faltered. "You know the score Glynda. Even if it doesn't mean anything to you, you know." He stopped again as if he didn't want to give anything away. "Stop acting like you don't understand!"

Snape rose from his chair and swept to the door. He paused and turned around, some strange emotion evident in his flushed face.

"I'm going for a walk." He announced. "I'll be back when it's time for the next ingredients to be added."

Glynda put her head in her hands and wished that she could just find a way to get on with the potion without continually upsetting him. She remembered what Dumbledore had said on the night she arrived about Snape being 'inward' with his feelings. Dumbledore had chuckled at that comment, but Glynda really felt like breaking something with the frustration of not knowing what was going on in Snapes head. It took her a while to realise that she _did_ actually care what he was thinking and indeed what he was thinking about her. The realisation surprised her.

Glynda returned to the lab and started performing some of the spells Severus had taught her yesterday on some fresh ingredients for the next stage of the potion. She had them all finished and laid out when he returned. He came up to the workbench and looked at the work she had done.

"Everything is ready to be added now." Glynda told him chirpily, hoping to begin on friendly terms. He looked her in the eye and let out a quiet sigh.

"We're making good progress then." He said and began to add the ingredients to the cauldron. His tone reflected hers, which made Glynda breathe a sigh of relief. "We'll need to process all of the infusions this afternoon so that we can start to combine the different potions. It will take most of the day, but we'll be back on track and ready to practice some of the incantations tomorrow."

"That's great. So I've not completely messed things up then?"

He looked into her eyes.

"No. Everything is fine." He said and went to work.

His words were so gentle that Glynda took from them a deeper meaning. She felt confident that he wasn't just talking about the potion. The rest of the afternoon was actually pleasant.

Glynda thoroughly enjoyed the process of potion making. With it having been her favourite subject when she was at Hogwarts as a student, she couldn't help but reminisce about her school days as she worked. Her mind wandered to a time when she and her friend Lily were in potions class preparing a simple sleeping draught. It was before she and Lucius were an item and Lily still spoke to her.

Thinking of Lily hurt a lot. Although they hadn't spoken since they fell out over the fact that Glynda, a Gryffindor, was dating Lucius, a Slytherin, she had been shocked to hear of her and James' death. Apart from Lucius, Lily had been Glyndas' only best friend in her entire life.

In potions the girls sat behind Lucius. Well actually it was Lucius _and_ Severus who sat in front of them, but Glynda had never really remembered that until now. He had always kept his back to them, while Lucius turned around to tease them, and in later years, to pass notes to Glynda.

Severus was in this particular memory because Glynda's fellow Gryffindors had been teasing him about his greasy hair and large nose. She couldn't think how this memory had sprung into her mind since it had never been recalled since the day it happened.

Glynda remembered the Gryffindor boys using their wands to send tiny electric shocks at Severus and how the potions master had simply turned a blind eye to it.

'I bet Severus would hex anyone who tried anything like that in his classroom these days.' She thought. Her next memory of that day in the classroom was her being annoyed with the Gryffindor boys and making them stop their torment. This had been the first in a chain of events in which Glynda became ostracised by the Gryffindors for sticking up for Slytherins.

Her focus came back to the present when Severus came over with his infusions. He had said something to her, but she hadn't heard what it was. He looked at her questioningly. Glynda just looked right back at him and tried to place him as the boy so easily bullied as a student. She couldn't. The characteristics of his face spoke of hardships and suffering, but with a positive, strong masculine effect. He repeated his question.

"Have you noticed the time?"

Glynda realised she had been staring at him and stopped right away and looked at her watch.

"Good Heavens! We've missed dinner." She replied.

"We're pretty much back on track now though." He reassured her. "That's all the infusions on and I can finish combining them all together later this evening. Shall we stop for the day?"

"Yes, it's been a long one." Just at that, Glyndas' stomach gave rise to the loudest and longest rumble she'd ever heard. She hadn't even noticed that she was hungry. Snape raised the sides of his mouth into what could only pass as amusement. Glynda noticed how it made his eyes seem brighter for a fleeting moment.

"I'll get the kitchens to sort out some dinner for us. Do you want to eat it here, or have it in your own quarters?"

She didn't really mean to, but her reply came out almost seductively.

"Are you asking me to have dinner with you?" She regretted her tone immediately.

Snape swallowed and looked seriously into her eyes.

"I'd like that very much." He said.

She suddenly realised that this would be a more formal occasion than simply breakfast or lunch and thought about saying no. Her manners told her that she had introduced the formality into Snapes hopes and that she would have to follow it through.

"I… I'll … just go and freshen up then." She excused herself. "The potion fumes have made me all sticky. Can you give me half an hour?"

"I'll be here waiting." He said not too dryly, and Glynda left for her chambers.

Glyndas' 'What to wear?' dilemma was sorted by the fact that all she had to choose from were everyday robes. This left the rest of the time for her to be mulling over her predicament.

'Why didn't I just say "I'll eat in my room"?' she pondered. 'Instead I turn on all the charm I've been repressing for nearly two decades and proposition the man who has sworn his love for me.'

As she dwelled on her idiotic response, she absentmindedly let her hair down so that it tumbled over her shoulders and down her back.

'Damn it!'

At the mirror, she took her hairbrush and tried to thrash it back into a ponytail. In haste she missed several strands which resulted in a very softening style that made her look like the type of woman who receives jewellery from her doting man in diamond adverts on muggle television. She was just about to take it out and start again when that same fire that had arisen inside of her when accepting to have dinner with him rose again and made her stop and look. She momentarily questioned her motives of why she even wanted to make an effort to look good for having dinner with Snape, but suppressed the thought to the back of her mind and left for dinner.

Soon after, Glynda was sitting back in Snapes rooms as he opened some wine.

"Red or white?" he asked her.

"White please."

"Good, more red for me." He replied with a smile.

This proper smile alerted her to the fact that Snape was in a much more sociable mood that she had ever seen him in. She giggled at his implication and then cursed herself silently for sounding so girly.

Wine poured and Snape sitting across from her, he raised his glass.

"Cheers?" he offered.

Glynda reciprocated and took a drink of her wine and began eating. For a while the only sound was the clinking of cutlery against crockery.

'This is driving me mad' she thought 'I have to say something to break this awkward silence.' Glynda was striving to think of something to say to take control of the situation and make it clear that she hadn't intended on giving Snape any indication that she shared his feelings.

'Say something, say anything' she thought. She was thinking about being tactful by asking him about Draco, then leading onto Lucius so she could express that she still wanted Lucius and no one else.

'Would that be too obvious?' she pondered as she continued to clink her cutlery around her plate.

'Now is the time to speak' the silence was trying on her. 'Talk now and get it over with. Bloody hell Glynda…say something.'

"More wine?" Snape asked.

Glynda realised that she had polished off her first glass before she had even made a dent in her main meal. The thought didn't phase her at all.

"Yes please." She finally spoke and Snape poured. 'OK it's now or never.'

"Severus?" she began. Deep breath.

He stopped eating and lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"What kind of wine are you drinking?" 'Fuck!' Breath out.

"It's a French wine made by a wizard family actually. They export to various wizard villages. I picked this one up in Hogsmeade.

"Oh, lovely" she replied.

"Do you want to try some?" he offered her his glass.

"No. No thanks. Lucius and I got so drunk on red wine once and I haven't touched it since" she told him with a memory-fuelled chuckle.

'Tactless' she told herself. She saw in his eyes that he was put out at the mention of Lucius' name. They went back to cutlery and crockery sounds again until they had both finished their meals and Glynda was on her third glass of wine. Snape topped their glasses up and directed them over to the cosy seat by the fireplace.

'Oh no!' thought Glynda 'I really need to make up an excuse to leave now.' As she thought, Snape spoke.

"Has Dumbledore told you when Lucius will be back?"

"He's not mentioned anything about Lucius to me since…" Her train of thought took her back to the previous night when she saw Draco. She relished the memory of her perfect boy. She just longed to meet him properly.

"Since…?" Snape brought her back.

"Since last night, before I saw Draco." She finished sadly.

"It's important that you meet Draco soon. The binding spell will be much easier if you have got to know him. Lucius is not making this process easy on us."

"Well, he'll be worried about Draco of course" Glynda replied automatically.

"You don't need to defend him anymore. Neither of us has to hold any fondness for him now."

Glynda sighed, thinking about him make her heart ache. This was as good a time as any to tell Snape how she felt about Lucius. She downed her wine.

"More please?" half asked, half ordered.

"Making the most of the weekend?" he mocked as he poured.

"I think Lucius is a good dad." She blurted. "He'll have Dracos best interests at heart."

Snape sighed.

"Glynda, you _thought_ Lucius _would_ be a good father, but you don't know how he's raised Draco. I've watched the boy grow. When he was a child, he was your living image and even had your traits, but he's grown into Lucius."

"I didn't have the chance to watch him grow." She snapped, but not angrily. She sensed herself getting upset and closed her eyes to concentrate on staying in a normal state. She could feel the fire warming the skin on her arms, although she also felt the same from the inside and figured that the alcohol was taking effect. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Snape was manoeuvring over beside her. He had sensed her upset and was taking place beside her putting his hand on top of her arm and squeezing it gently.

"Severus, I…"

"Ssh!" he stopped her gently. "You don't have to say anything."

She had been about to finally tell him that she longed for Lucius. She took his hushes as a chance not to. Snape softly pulled at her arm to bring her forward and slipped his other arm around her back. He hugged her in close to his body.

'Oh God, I have to tell him now' she thought, but her head was filled with the scent of the man whose arms she was in. There was just something about his clothes and closeness that made her smell receptors send out comfort signals to her brain.

"I will be with you though this whole process Glynda" he began. "I swear I won't let anything or anyone harm you."

'Tell him now' she yelled at herself and pushed herself free from his person. His arms still circled her loosely. She looked pleadingly into his eyes and searched for the words.

"I love you Glynda" he spoke.

"Oh, Severus. I…" she began once more, but the door swung open violently. In strode Lucius Malfoy, dark green robes bellowing behind him, closely followed by Dumbledore.

"Here you are." Lucius directed at Glynda. He paused and surveyed the scene he had just burst in on. Snapes arms dropped to his sides and he retreated from Glyndas personal space.

"Well, well! I see you wasted no time in finding a suitable use for my darling ex-wife Sev, old boy."

Unfazed by the real insult in Lucius' observation, Glynda jumped to her own defence.

"I'm not your ex-wife Lucius!"

"That's something we'll have to remedy" said Lucius simply.

Glynda couldn't believe her ears. She shook her head slowly, but no one noticed.

"So Severus, have you finally had your wicked way with the object of your life-long affections? How was she for you?" Severus jumped to his feet, but Dumbledore held him back and fixed an angry stare at Lucius.

"Lucius, that's enough!" Dumbledore stepped in. "That's not why we tracked Glynda down tonight."

Glynda was so shocked to hear Lucius talk this way about her. She had to make him stop. She approached him and took hold of his arm.

"Lucius, please?" she begged. "Don't do this."

Lucius ignored her and sneered at Snape.

"You'd get on a lot better if you took her clothes off you know."

Dumbledore could no longer restrain Snape. He barged past him and knocked Glynda out the way to grab at Lucius' throat and pin him against the wall. His wand was out in a flash and he poised it pointing right at Lucius' face.

"SHUT UP MALFOY. Just shut up!" Snape spat. "Don't you dare speak that way to me about Glynda."

Lucius had been caught unawares by Snapes attack, but laughed nonchalantly at the rage he saw in his eyes. Even with an angry wand poised at his head, he was still totally in control.

"So you _are_ still in love with her then."

"Just give me a reason to use this wand!" Snape persisted in his attack and glowered at him.

'Oh my God, he's going to kill him' Glynda thought. She stepped in by their sides and placed a hand on Snape's wand arm and tried to lower it.

"Severus, leave him alone!"

Snape turned to look at her. She was breathing deeply and her anguish was evident in her face. He lowered his wand and loosened his grip of Lucius. Lucius started laughing heartily.

"Oh, my saviour!" he mocked.

Glynda turned to look at Lucius. Her heart was beating so fast. How had he come to hate her so? Her courage gave into her heart and she started to cry. Even his evil laughter made his face light up. She just needed to reach out to the person he used to be. She could still see him in there, and that was why she still wanted him. She reached up and placed a hand on his chest to get his attention. As she looked into his eyes through her tear-filled ones, she tilted her head and gave him a questioning expression. She shook her head slowly. His eyes bored into her and although initially filled with amusement, he raised his eyebrows as if he'd just realised something.

"Oh my, my Glynda." He laughed out loud again. "Does Severus know?" he asked her mysteriously. They all looked at him in confusion. Even Glynda didn't know what he'd seen in her eyes. He looked up at Snape and raised an evil, victorious grin. Snape looked back in uncertainty.

"It would appear not." He grabbed her wrist violently and put his face right up to hers so that they could only see each others eyes. She gasped and breathed heavily.

"Glynda? Are you still in love with me?" Glynda swallowed hard. Her mind yelled 'Yes, Oh God! Yes!' but she couldn't speak. Her breathing became shallow and everything about her body spoke the words for her. Anyone could see that she was standing in front of this man and pining desperately for him. He let her go and smiled a large smile for Snape and Dumbledore to see.

"Oh, this is precious! Glynda is still in love with me. And after all this time too. How sweet." He turned and left her standing dumbstruck and rounded on Snape. "Oh, well old boy. Better luck next time."

Snape couldn't even move to attack him again. Glynda turned her focus to him and looked into his eyes and tried to convey her utter regret to him. He just looked at her, full of hurt, as if she was pulling his heart out right there and then and was ripping it to shreds. Glynda didn't think she's ever seen anyone ever look so pitiful.

Lucius sighed contently and turned back to Glynda.

"I'll be introducing you to Draco tomorrow." His words were only barely kicking in. "Please try not to be so emotionally retarded. I don't want my son to loose any respect for me. I'll be back at dinner time."

He took one last look at Snape and with a snort of derisiveness, he strutted from the room.

It took a minute or so before any of them moved. Glynda, sobbing silently to herself, looked to Snape, who had averted his shell-shocked pose to the floor, then to Dumbledore, who was standing with his hands clasped in front of his face looking utterly taken aback. He obviously hadn't been expecting that little outburst.

It became too much for Glynda. She sobbed out loud and began…

"I'm so sorry. I…. There's nothing I can do." She looked from Snape to Dumbledore and back again. Their vacant expressions impressed firmly in her mind. She turned and fled to her rooms leaving them both staring after her.


	9. Families

**Chapter 8**

****

At 1am, Glynda was still sitting hugging a pillow on her windowsill looking across the grounds of Hogwarts towards the lake. She was surrounded by dozens of used tissues – cried out of tears again. She kept cursing the amount of wine she had drunk at dinner that now prevented her from taking to the roads again. She just wanted to speed up the mountains and forget her woes.

'How can I face Snape again?' she thought. 'I'm not going to be able to get this spell performed without his help. I've let everyone down.'

She thought about the repercussions on Draco and therefore on Lucius.

'Lucius is going to hate me even more. Oh, what made him change?'

She held her head in her hands. She sat for a long period of time deliberating over numerous excuses for his change of heart. She just couldn't accept the real reason of him simply being an evil man. In her mind, Lucius was still the same person, but with some explainable reasoning for his new fronting personality. In her mind, she could make him see the reason and somehow find his true self again. He _would_ love her again – in her mind.

After resolving to find her soul mate again, her anguish returned to her next worry. Snape.

'I've hurt him so much.' She thought. She pictured his face after he'd realised that she was still in love with Lucius. She'd never really seen him smile since she'd known him, but the look on his face made it seem like he'd never smile again. She felt so remorseful. Despite his challenging personality, her view of him had changed dramatically since she'd arrived. She had the utmost respect for him as a person. Nothing he ever done was selfish. Dumbledore, Draco, herself and even Lucius came before he did. He had given up his intimate life to save her and Draco from death and for that she could be nothing else but grateful. He'd spoken about protecting others after she'd found out that he was in love with her. She wondered now who he meant and what else he had risked for other people. There was obviously so much about him that she was clueless about. She desperately hoped that she had not blown her chances of ever finding out. She needed his friendship. He was someone she could trust and she was adamant not to let him go.

The hours ticked past. When Glynda finally came to peace with the nights' events, the sun had begun to rise. It was then, that her emotions did a U-turn from anxiety to a happy nervousness. Later that day she would be meeting Draco properly. She pictured him clearly in her mind. His perfect smile and hearty laugh. His sparkling teeth and eyes. Flawless, absolutely flawless. At first she pictured happy scenes of being reunited with her loving son. She would wrap her arms around him and hold him tight. He would be so happy to finally meet her and would talk of how he always knew that his real mother would come back for him. She'd watched far too many shitty muggle movies.

The harsh reality knocked her out of her reverie.

'He's going to hate me' she feared. 'Lucius and that bitch will make sure of that.'

She panicked at the thoughts now feeding through her mind. The meeting was going to be a disaster. She tried to force her brain to come up with ways that she could make everything all right. How could she make sure Draco didn't see her as some weak and pathetic woman, but as someone he could respect? All she'd been since arriving here was weak and pathetic. In front of Lucius and in front of Severus and now she was determined that she wasn't going to come across like that in front of Draco. It just wasn't her. She was strong. She had been through a lot of shit, but she had a history that she didn't want to loose. She had done nothing for her son to be ashamed of her for and as long as she remembered that when she was meeting him she'd be fine.

Thinking positive thoughts she lay down on her bed and shut her eyes. Sleep just didn't come her way. It was sometime after 5am that she finally drifted off.

When Glynda finally surfaced, she immediately left the castle for a long drive around the mountains. Providing Snape had combined all the potions together, she had three days for it to brew before it would finally be ready. She spent the first half of her waking hours trying to forget about the castle and everyone in it, then the next half fretting over meeting Draco. The butterflies in her stomach were beginning to make her feel sick.

'Be yourself.' she kept telling herself over and over again, hoping that the constant reminder would actually make her act herself when she met Draco.

The time came for her to head back to the castle and finally meet her son.

'Put your foot down Glynda, you never usually drive this slow.' she told her self as she realised that she was cruising along desolate country roads at a steady thirty miles per hour. She sped up for a little stretch before realising that she was dropping speed again. Her subconscious was actually making her go as slowly as possible because she was so nervous. 'Come on girl!' she encouraged herself, but to no avail.

Glynda pulled into the side of the road and lowered her head onto the steering wheel. Shortly after, she sat up abruptly.

"Get a grip!" she shouted out loud and picked away again and drove swiftly back to Hogwarts.

Glynda shook anxiously as she stood outside Dumbledores office. To her surprise, Lucius answered the door to her and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. His mood impressed upon her immediately. While trying hard not to loose face in front of her, maintaining his superior image, he was harbouring betraying emotions. She could sense his anguish and guessed that he was suffering from whatever reaction Draco had made to the news. He looked at Glynda and tried to convey an expression of indifference, but only disheartened sorrow was displayed.

"You've told him." Glynda offered as a way of beginning.

Lucius sighed.

"He's handled the news as one would expect a sixteen-year-old boy in his position to handle it." He drawled, again trying to give the impression that he was in total control of the situation, and his emotions. "There has been anger and tears and we are now in a stage of denial. He hasn't spoken a word for a good ten minutes."

"What have you told him?" Glynda was still nervous for herself, but her mothering instincts wanted to protect Draco from his heartache.

"We, that is, Narcissa and I, told him about the danger he was in and that we were doing everything in our power to protect him. We then explained that to do this, we would have to tell him something about our past that was likely to upset him. Narcissa gave an overview of the nature of the protection before breaking down into hysterics and blurting out her regret at not being able to help him." Lucius let out a disdainful snort and continued. "Naturally Draco had become very confused by that point and I then told him about my previous marriage to you and that your heritage meant that it couldn't continue."

Glynda was enraged by his account of things, but realising that he was deliberately trying to taunt her, restrained herself and let him continue.

"I think that he had probably worked out the details for himself by then, but I clarified that unfortunately before our marriage ended, I conceived him with you instead of Narcissa and that when he was born, we raised him as Narcissa's son and that you returned to the muggle world."

Her rage had turned to rancour.

"You've made him hate me before I've even met him!" she bellowed.

"On the contrary," His tone reflected his original mood as he had leaving the office. "Draco seems to be taking on the role of neglected son, pondering on all the negative memories of his childhood and blaming them on Narcissa for not being his real mother, and myself for making him a mudblood." At the last comment, his tone had reverted back to the taunting one which enraged Glynda further.

"And how is that contrary to him hating me?" she demanded.

"Thanks to this situation, my son is now doubting the morals of his upbringing. 'How can mudbloods be looked upon as inferior if he himself has been born from one?' In his confused mind right now, you are the saviour that can iron out these new wrinkles in his life. He knows me too well and seems to have worked out that you probably didn't have any choice in leaving him. He is very intelligent." His admiration for Draco was marred with his loathing of Glynda.

Glynda's heart skipped a beat as it surged with love for Draco. Had he really seen through his fathers' account of things and interpreted the situation accurately? Her confidence brimmed.

"Can I go in now?" she half-asked as she made for the door. Lucius started to speak, but Glynda was on autopilot through her heightened assurance. He couldn't have restrained her if he tried. She was ready to finally meet Draco.

Her hand reached for the door and she swiftly entered Dumbledoors office. There could have been a hundred occupants of the room that moment, but Glynda was immersed in the presence of only one soul. As the door had disturbed the expressively silent office, Draco raised his head to look at her. She immediately noticed his red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Her heart grew heavy. Her steely resolve faltered and a lump formed in her throat. Her poor boy.

Her nervousness returned. Draco was looking at her intently. His confusion and anguish was evident. He had never laid eyes on her before, but here they were looking at each other and trying to be receptive of each others feelings. Merely contemplating that he now at least knew she existed overwhelmed her with a happiness that began to shine through. Happy tears formed, misting up her eyes, and her mouth formed a wide, genuine smile.

"Hello Draco." She said with more steadiness than she thought she had.

Her poor boy looked helpless, not knowing what to do or say. He slowly rose from his chair and stepped towards her. Glynda moved in so that they were within touching distance, but at that she froze, unable to move any further. Some tears had fallen down her face, and her heart was beating faster than she thought was healthy. She looked up at his face, realising firstly how tall he was, then secondly what nervousness was seeping from his pores.

"Hello." Draco finally replied before swallowing hard.

Hesitantly, she reached up to his face, but not content with the small gesture, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him for all his worth. Startled at first, Draco uncertainly reciprocated. Glynda just didn't want to let go. After a few seconds, her forming tears began to flow freely, which must have also broken Dracos' resolve, as he sobbed into her shoulder and squeezed her tightly. Her emotions were in overdrive. Never before had she felt so elated. She couldn't think beyond the boy, no… man, in her arms. Even breathing ceased to come naturally causing her crying to become painful.

If it was an eternity that they held onto each other, it wasn't long enough for Glynda. When they eventually broke apart to look at each other again, Glynda didn't release her grasp of his robes and tenderly pulled him towards her again, this time with her arms around his back and his around her shoulders.

A shorter while later, they eventually came apart and wiped away their tears. Glynda looked at him again and smiled.

"I'm so glad to meet you Draco. You don't know what this means to me." She paused, briefly then continued, not wanting to make him feel that he had to say anything. "You're so beautiful. I love you so much." They both worked hard to stop the river of emotion.

Slowly the world outside Draco became apparent to Glynda again. Dumbledore sat, looking on, at his desk with a serious expression, but a happy glint in his eyes. Narcissa sat on a chair to Glynda's right staring at a rolled up handkerchief in her lap. She couldn't see him, but she sensed that Lucius was standing behind her by the door.

When the snivels ceased, Lucius strode forward.

"As you seem to have worked out, _this_ is your mother." Lucius spoke with bitterness.

As he did so, Glynda noticed Draco physically switch off from him. Draco didn't try to hide the fact that he didn't want to listen to anything his father had to say. His head lowered and he turned his back to the room and became suddenly interested in the books on Dumbledore's shelves.

"Don't ignore your father Draco" Narcissa scolded.

"Don't _you_ tell _me_ what to do!" Draco hissed back.

"Oh, must we go back to this again?" Lucius asked.

Glynda felt very uncomfortable, like she shouldn't be hearing the animosity between the sham Malfoy family. But for the small amount of guilt, she privately enjoyed seeing Narcissa being chastised by both men. After all, she had taken Glynda's place in _her _family.

Dumbledore rose from his seat and approached Draco.

"Now then, let us try to focus on the reason for this disarray." Dumbledore spoke calmly. "I understand that each of you is dealing with extremely unwelcome and stressful emotions right now. However, Draco's best interests should be at the forefront of all our worries right now, therefore it is up to Draco where we go from here.

"Draco, now you have been 'introduced' to Glynda, your birth-mother, you will have to become better acquainted with her in order for the protection spell to be carried out. I will stress, that this will happen on your terms and in your own time. I suggest to you, on a personal level that you also have a more private discussion with your parents who have raised you well. It's up to you what you do now."

Eveyone remained silent as Draco's mind reeled with complicated decisions.

"I don't know!" he moaned "I just don't know who I am anymore." He slumped back into his chair and held his head in his hands.

"Of course," said Dumbledore "You may just need some time alone to channel your thoughts."

Draco nodded, but didn't look up.

"Very well." Dumbledore resumed and began quietly directing people to leave the office. Glynda followed a weeping Narcissa being coldly comforted by Lucius. At the doorframe, she looked back at Draco who still had his head bowed and saw his shoulders shaking. She made to go back to him, but Dumbledore restricted her gently. She looked at him and he smiled sympathetically.

"He'll be fine Glynda. I'll escort him back to his dormitory."

Glynda sighed and made her way back to her rooms.


	10. Reaquaintance with Old Memories

**Chapter 9**

Her mind reeled with her fresh images of Draco. She tried to cling to the warmth of his embrace and the scent of him. She felt the happiest she had felt in years.

Glynda was only in her room for a short while before someone knocked her door. Severus Snapes' dark form bellowed in the doorway. His skin was deathly pale and his thin lips were pursed close. He stood with his arms folded and an obvious resentment to where he was standing.

"Dumbledore informed me that you may be in need of some comfort." His tone was harsh and cold.

Glynda felt unnerved by his frosty exterior. She had never felt this tone directed at her. She did her best to act normal.

"Oh, thank you Severus. Please come in."

He swiftly strode from the doorway and abruptly turned to face her, a yard or two into the room. She tried not to look directly at him and busied herself with tidying up as she spoke.

"I'm feeling fine. I'm just worried about Draco. He seems to have accepted me very quickly. I just hope that he's not as upset as he was earlier. He seemed very angry with Lucius and Narcissa. It's understandable though. Would you like a drink?" Everything came out so fast and she immediately noticed how shaky she had become since Severus entered the room. She was terribly nervous.

Glynda momentarily looked towards him and noticed his features soften towards her for a fleeting moment, before his steely façade took place again.

"I don't need a drink." He snapped, too harshly. Slightly shocked, she looked at him again and saw how he'd noticed how harsh he had spoken and then chosen not to correct himself.

"I'm here to give you something to take you mind off things if you need to." He levitated some text books that Glynda hadn't noticed him bring in, and place them onto a table. "These will help you learn the theory behind the spells you have to perform. Professor McGonagall will be summoned by Dumbledore to help you should you require assistance." He turned to leave the room.

Glynda processed her thoughts and stood stunned for a second or two before hindering his exit.

"Wait a minute!" she exclaimed, still trying to sound bright. "I…I though you would be helping me with the spells. After all, you've done them all before with success."

"I am a potions master, not a miracle worker." He said as he reached for the door handle. As he opened and strode through, he mumbled something that Glynda didn't catch straight away. It was only when he turned the corner at the end of the corridor that what he had said hit her.

"And every success comes at a price."

The words and their obvious direction of meaning rang in her ears as she bound down the corridor after him. He must have flown back to the dungeons as she didn't catch up with him until he was entering his rooms.

"So I'm just the price you pay for a successful spell am I?" she spat at him, puffing out of breath and she reached him. She caught his full attention and he turned in his doorway looking bemused. "Well let me tell you this Snape, I never asked for your help and since I found out about it, I've been nothing but grateful."

At that he let out a feigned amused snort. "Well, I _have_." She raised her voice in protest. "And another thing…"

"I have no time for another thing," he interrupted in a bored tone. Glynda was enraged by his interruption.

"You _will _listen to me Snape!" she bellowed.

"Don't call me Snape. You are _not_ superior to me!"

"Well listen up, _asshole_, I never asked of anything from you. You volunteered everything. I never intentionally hurt you and have had to walk on eggshells around you since I arrived to make sure that I don't insult your little ego. I never gave you any indication that I reciprocated your feelings, so don't try and act the martyr. You never ever tried to tell me either at school or after, how you felt about me, so how was I ever to know that you loved me? You were distant and cold and you barely spoke to me. And it's not like I never gave you the opportunity. I hovered around you like a bad smell in first year waiting for you to ask me to the Christmas dance and I never even got as much as a glance in my direction. I…"

They both froze and a still silence lay over them punctuated only by Glyndas' still heavy breathing.

'Where the hell did that memory come from?' she wondered. Then a whole wave of familiar emotion came over her. She had had a massive crush on Severus when she enrolled in Hogwarts. She had done everything but tell him directly. That had been how she had become so close to Lucius. She had used him to get closer to Severus. Then Snape had asked Lily to the dance, leaving Glynda absolutely gutted. Of course, Lily didn't go with Snape, but Glynda had been heartbroken and agreed to go with Lucius instead. Their romance had blossomed from there and Glynda had repressed her memories of her first ever heartache, until now.

Snapes stony guard was down. He looked at her questioningly.

"I…" she began uncertainly. "What I meant to say was…" She stuttered again and sighed. "I never meant to hurt you Severus. I'm sorry." She concluded and turned to leave, before feeling a strong hand grip her upper arm and turn her back around to face him. He kept hold of her arm and took her other arm in his other hand. She could feel his body heat and his breath in her face. She looked deep into his dark eyes and saw a new twinkle that hadn't been there before. He leaned down slowly and placed his lips on hers. Her stomach was brimming with butterflies. It was like her first ever kiss for a second time. His lips were soft and warm and she pressed herself into him and deepened the kiss. His arms circled her back and rested across her shoulders. She reached around his waist and placed her hands on his back. He opened his mouth and manoeuvred the kiss slowly and gently making Glyndas butterflies positively flutter. His hand roamed decently over her back and he drew one up to her neck and cupped the back of her head with his fingers threaded through her hair. It was a most beautiful kiss. With a slight sigh and a shallow breath, they broke apart.

They looked at each other while they assessed each others reactions to the kiss. While it was obvious neither of them had any protest to it, Glynda was radiating some kind of regret that Snape picked up on. He sighed sadly.

"Glynda, you know now how I feel. And I also know now that you still love Lucius. I'm not asking anything from you, but please don't expect me not to be bitter. Especially after what you've just told me."

'How can he stand there and be so understanding about this?' she thought. 'How can I be such a bitch to him? I'm just going to keep hurting him over and over again.' Her eyes misted up with tears.

She backed out of his reach, then extended a hand to take his. She lifted it up and held it in both hands and held it to her face. Kissing it gently she spoke quickly.

"You are such a special person, Severus Snape."

And she turned and ran back to her room.

Walking briskly up the last corridor to her door, she willed away her tears.

'You've cried enough girl!' she told herself. And she was glad she did, because the figure standing outside her door, plucking up the courage to knock, set her emotions further into turmoil.

"Draco?" she spoke on approach.

Draco turned and looked at her, very surprised and looking terrified.

"Dumbledore...told me where I could find you." He stammered.

She smiled broadly and let him into her room.

"Have a seat." Glynda gestured to the sofa and Draco awkwardly sat down. "Do you want something to drink?" She knew she was stalling.

"No thank you."

Glynda sat down uneasily across from him and smiled meekly. Draco looked nervous and saddened and showed no hint of a smile at all.

"Thank you for coming to see me." She said. "I'm so happy to finally meet you; I've been dreaming of this for years."

"Did father stop you from seeing me?" Draco questioned.

Although glad of the interruption as Glynda was rambling on too much, she had no idea how to answer all the questions Draco must have.

"Apparently a spell was cast on me after you were born that meant I had to stay away from this world and therefore you, and your father."

"So, was it him who made you go?"

"I really don't know Draco. Everything seemed to turn upside down at your birth. I had no idea what was happening. Your father changed suddenly and took you away from me. I never saw you again until today." Draco lowered his head and Glynda's eyes welled up. "I never even held you Draco." At that she reached out to touch his arm and squeezed it gently. He looked up into her eyes.

"I would never have left you of my own free will. I have loved you from the moment I knew you were growing inside me. I'm sure your father had too."

Dracos swollen eyes were welling up too.

"What happened with you and father? How did he change?" Glynda sighed.

"I wish I knew. I don't even know what he became, but when I knew him, he was kind and loving and gentle and perfect." Her eyes glazed over at the misty memories. "We were very much in love. I don't know why he changed."

"I wish I had known him then."

Glynda's heart sank. How had Lucius been treating their boy all these years? Had Draco not been loved?

"I can tell you a lot of wonderful things about your father…" she began.

The conversation continued for hours. Glynda told Draco everything about her past with Lucius. Draco listened intently and laughed and sighed in all the right places and asked questions that supplemented Glynda's story telling nicely. They were so at ease with each other that the conversation flowed without difficulty. Glynda felt so jubilant with the situation and felt less and less nervous as time passed. Draco seemed to become much more relaxed and less upset too. He asked questions about her youth and her schooldays and went right through the years up until his birth. At that part, they stopped talking and looked away from each other remorsefully.

"Anyway, enough about me," Glynda said brightly, "I want to know everything there is to know about Draco Malfoy."

He grinned and began telling her all about his likes and dislikes, his friends and his school classes and teachers. Who he liked and who he didn't.

Glynda was mesmerised. He was simply the most wonderful being on the planet. They found out about what sort of things they had in common and Glynda was surprised at how similar they actually were. They compared old and new teachers at Hogwarts. Glynda's stomach lurched when he mentioned a certain potions professor, but put the thoughts of him to the back of her mind as she learned all about the life and times of her mystifying baby boy.

Time ticked past while they discovered as much as they could about each other. Laughs, giggles and solemnity aplenty. When they finally decided to call it a night, it was Draco who sealed the conversation to perfection and caused Glynda to choke back a lump of happiness like she hadn't felt in years.

"I'm really glad to get to know you…mum."

Not 'Glynda', or 'mother', but 'mum' - like he was glad to have her in his life.

"That'll take a bit of getting used to!" he said playfully before leaving the room.

Glynda stared after him at the door for a good ten minutes before turning in for the night. Contentment.

AN: There may be a longer delay before the next chapter gets posted because I've very busy outside the FF world! Will update asap though. Thanks for the reviews and continuing support!

Hugs RB.


	11. Practise Makes Perfection

Hello. Sorry for the long delay in updating. Here's Chapter Ten. It'll probably be the same amount of time again before I post the next chapter, but I promise that it will be a good one. Hope you enjoy this. Hugs RB.

**Chapter 10**

Most of the morning was spent musing over the wonderment of Draco. Although justified to have such thoughts at the forefront of her mind, Glynda chastised herself for procrastinating thoughts of Severus. Their meeting the previous evening had opened up a new can of worms. How could she have forgotten about her crush on him? She had looked upon him with such vehement anger since then, that she had repressed all of her good feelings towards him. At the moment, she seemed to only have those good feelings. And good they were. That kiss!

Glynda felt herself blush at the effect it had had on her. His passion towards her was ferocious, but yet he had held it right back when he saw the look on her face afterwards. She was wracked with guilt. Guilt; that should have died sixteen years ago when Lucius ostracised her.

'Why should I still be true to him?' she questioned herself. It only made her feel worse. She was still legally married to Lucius, even if it meant nothing to him.

'Of course, it means something to him. He meant every word of his vows.' Many different perspectives played in her mind.

'He didn't bloody well stick to them though, did he?' There was no reason why she shouldn't get over him and move on. There wasn't even any reason for her not to have another relationship.

'But not with Snape! Ew.'

'Why not with Snape? You found him attractive once before. What did you like about him?'

Glynda felt nauseous as she thought about why she had been attracted to Snape as a schoolgirl. All his qualities were completely opposite to those she had loved in Lucius. From dark to blonde, from shy to bold, from moody to wittiness the differences were extreme. How could she have been attracted to someone who was so socially challenged? Lucius had been the life and soul of the party. Someone people laughed with and respected. Severus had been the one to sulk in a corner and leave before the end. No, Glynda did not find that kind of behaviour attractive. She wanted to be the girl having a laugh with the centrepiece and be the last one standing at the end of the night.

'Do you really?' a voice asked her.

'Yes.' She told herself. She didn't contemplate the fact that before and after Lucius, she had always been the person to shy away from people and refuse invites to parties or leave at the first opportunity. She acted out those behavioural deformities that she said she didn't find attractive in Snape. But at that moment, she didn't contemplate it at all. The voice kept quiet, or she didn't listen.

Several hours later, and many, many pages through the spell books that Severus had brought her, Glynda threw a borrowed wand at the window in frustration. Countless attempts at trying to mentally connect with the beetles she was practising on were proving futile. Instead of feeling an urge to eat leaves and insects, she noticed that the selected beetle was in fact evading the effect of the spell and she felt more like the dead wood of the table below. Angry at her inability to perform the first ritual, she stomped over to the window and snatched her wand back up and left her rooms to go and see Dumbledore.

As she approached, the door to Dumbledore's office opened and two figures stepped through. Noticing her obvious ire, both figures focussed their attention on her. As Glynda reached them, she saw an amused twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes and the usual scowl on Severus's face.

"Having trouble Glynda?" Dumbledore asked knowingly.

Unperturbed by his ability to know what she had been up to, and making a mental note to remember that Dumbledore could watch _everything_ going on in the castle, Glynda sighed and began her moan.

"I just can't do these bloody spells. I'm useless. I've hardly performed a spell in years and I just can't get used to this wand. It won't do anything I want it to. I tried to charm a feather into the air this morning and it blew up. Nothing I do works and I don't know when I'm going to be able to do this on Draco, because I've killed seven beetles already this morning. Look, there aren't even any sparks coming out the end when I wave it." Glynda frantically shook the wand infront of her pointing directly at Dumbledore, who very agilely for a man of his age, ducked and moved to the side grabbing her wand arm and lowering it.

"Whoa! OK. Let's not be too hasty with the wand waving." He smiled and took his old wand from her. "Hmm. I do believe that this isn't a suitable wand for you to use after all. Don't worry too much about your abilities, it'll all come back to you with some specific tutoring and once you've bought a new wand."

Glynda didn't feel very much reassured and looked at his doubtfully.

"Glynda, no one expects you to be able to do this straight away apart from yourself. It's only natural that you'll be a bit rusty at first. Severus will sort it all out for you." At that he moved slowly forward, leaving Glynda and Severus looking at each other with shock on both faces. Severus was first to speak up.

"Headmaster, I thought we agreed that Minerva would be assisting with the spell work."

Dumbledore turned to face them and leant in towards Severus as if speaking only to him, but still audible enough for Glynda to hear.

"I thought that during the conversation we just had, that it was given that you would be able to assist Glynda after all. Dinner?"

The headmaster walked on down towards the great hall and didn't look back even with the mumbled protests from both of them.

As he disappeared from sight, Glynda turned to face Severus to find him avert his gaze from her. Her butterflies started flying again as she looked at him and remembered their last encounter. What was the conversation he'd just had with Dumbledore? Did he tell him?

'I thought we'd decided that we didn't fancy Snape anymore.' Her contradictive voices spoke up again. She found herself wanting his attention to be focussed on her again and have his eyes look into her own. She looked at his hands and was shocked to think about where she wanted his hands to be placed on her body. Her eyes focussed on his averted face again and she realised that she wanted to be near him.

'Maybe we do.'

"Can you really help me out with this Severus?" she asked him cautiously trying to catch his eyes. As he lifted his head, he momentarily caught her eyes and in that second Glynda felt electrified. She drew in a quiet breath and felt her heart pound in her chest. He didn't look back at her and turned away slightly.

"I'll do what I can. But you need a new wand." He then stalked away in the direction Dumbledore had gone. Glynda watched his dark bellowing figure disappear and felt that recently familiar stirring in her groin. She couldn't ignore the signs anymore. She really was attracted to Snape and no amount of guilty feelings was going to be able to mask that. She thought of Lucius and the guilt grew stronger, but much to her loathing, so did the stirring in her groin.

Her thoughts and dreams that evening only heightened the sensations of lust that were forming within her. Every wave of desire she felt reminded her of starting Hogwarts and it dawned on her that her schoolgirl crush on Severus Snape was back.

She returned from Diagon Alley by portkey early the next afternoon. Her trip to Ollivanders was successful in that she had purchased an eight and a half inches beech wand with a core of unicorn hair. It still didn't seem to work the way her original wand had, but was by and far better than the one she was using the previous day.

'Practice makes perfect' she chanted and began levitating some light objects and making them whiz around the room. Pleased with the improved results, she tried out a few more complicated spells that she remembered from her school days. Within an hour, she had her coffee table dancing, her armchairs spinning on one leg, her wardrobe singing, her bedclothes transfigured into new robes and the candelabras on the wall all lighting and relighting in time with the music that was coming from the chest of drawers to accompany the wardrobe.

Fully elated by her refreshment of high school grade spells, she jovially jived around the room without hearing the repeated knocking coming from the door. Moments later, she was surprised to hear a cessation incantation come from the door behind her and the fracas immediately halted. She spun around to come face to face with a very angry Snape.

"Five minutes, I stood out on the corridor trying to get you to open the door! No less that seven students passed by; delighted to see their formidable potions master unable to be answered over the inappropriate noise levels radiating from this room and also temporarily stumped in trying to unlock the door that turned out to be open all along. I do not take well to being laughed at by students; Gryffindor students at that!"

Glynda tried to hold in her laughter, but found that she could not, and erupted in giggles. Snape looked on in confusion.

"Likewise, I do not like being laughed at by adults either."

Glynda tried to cease the giggles, but only deep laughter prevailed. She had no idea what was making her laugh, as she'd seen Snape get this angry before and had actually felt quite frightened by it, but today, she was looking at him in a whole new light and wasn't anywhere near as intimidated by him as she had been previously. The happiness she felt at becoming so at ease with him only made the laughter continue.

"What is so funny?" Snape demanded. His anger subsided and he was left only with confusion. She finally calmed down a bit and smiled at him, looking into his bewildered eyes and finding herself lost in the dark mysteries that they held.

"Oh, Severus, I'm sorry," she began through heavy breathing and a few more chuckles. "It's just that… I don't know."

She trailed off, not wanting to have to explain her feelings. It still didn't feel right. Angsty schoolgirl emotions of being afraid to show true feelings to someone were predominant.

"It's just funny." She finished, still smiling.

"What is?"

"Oh, nothing." She waved her hand in dismissal and finally halted her hilarity. "Please come in properly." She directed him to sit on one of the now steady armchairs. Snape obliged.

"Did you come to see me for something in particular, or did you just want to tell me off for the noise?" Glynda joked and maintained her eye contact with him. She felt like she could gaze into his eyes forever and still wonder what he was hiding. 'Was that a flicker of a smile?'

"I just came to arrange a time to practice the spells for Draco. I have two classes this afternoon, so I can meet you in my classroom when they are over." Snape waited for a response.

"Oh that would be wonderful" she said a little too enthusiastically. "I bought a new wand today."

"So I presumed." He retorted sarcastically, but in a softer tone than before.

Glynda showed him her wand.

"I'll have another practice before we meet later. I should be back on form soon." Snape rose to leave.

"Well just make sure your practices don't result in as much disruption this time." This time he really did smile at her. Only briefly, but obvious enough to catch Glyndas breath and make her weak at the knees. Glynda tittered like a teenager as he left and closed the door, breathing a sigh of relief.

'I can't go on like this' she thought. Everytime she saw him now she was reduced to a nervous wreck. 'How am I going to learn things from him if I keep staring at him like there's nothing else to look at?'

'Forgotten about Lucius already have we?' Her annoying conscience piped up again. 'You know you _are _still married to him. Shouldn't be fawning over another man.'

Glynda closed her eyes and tried to get the thought out of her head. It was no use. She knew that her attraction to Severus was growing, but also knew that she'd never allow herself to do anything about it.

'Just get on with the spell and put Dracos interests before your own' she told herself.

"Practise makes perfect…"

Glyndas confidence was considerably higher than the previous day as she had successfully managed to feel empathy with one of her beetle subjects.

"If I die, it will rain." It had worried.

She was reciting incantations to herself all the way down to the dungeons and almost barged right into the potions classroom before noticing that it was still full of students from Snapes last lesson of the day. She kept quiet and stood outside the open door so that no one would notice and watched the goings on with interest.

Severus was standing looking over the shoulder of a confident looking witch with bushy brown hair. A terrified looking boy kept glancing up at him nervously as he assessed the product in the cauldron below. Severus stooped low and spoke quietly to the two pupils. The girl showed complete indifferent to whatever he had said, but the boys eyes widened and his mouth fell open in shock. With a swish of his robes, Severus strode to the front of the classroom and instructed the class to take a sample of their finished product to his desk for marking and clear up their mess. The girl and boy then turned around to the two boys behind them and spoke animatedly about whatever Snape has just said to them.

"I MEAN IN SILENCE!" Snapes voice bellowed across the room and a brief hush fell across the classroom.

Glynda's attention then focussed on the blonde-haired boy in the front row. It was Draco. It was like watching him through the Observitall again. He seemed happy and carefree while surrounded by his peers and not having to worry about what was going on in his family life. She was glad to see that the whole affair didn't seem to be having a completely detrimental effect on him. He was studiously clearing up his things and sharing a quiet joke with his potions partner. Snape didn't seem to notice.

It was when Glynda took her eyes off him for a moment that she noticed a raven-haired girl behind him gazing at him lustfully. She had finished clearing up and was sitting at her desk with her chin resting on her fist and a dreamy expression on her face. At first Glynda thought that Draco hadn't noticed the girls' attention, but then Draco turned and smoothly winked at her before flashing a slight knowing smile. The girl snapped out of her reverie and retuned the smile with a large, happy grin that lasted on her until Snape dismissed the class.

Glynda backed up against the wall opposite the classroom as the students poured out. Most of the students looked towards her with curious interest as they came out. Some of them muttered among themselves about why there was a stranger waiting to see Snape after class and speculated as to who she was. Soon Draco was approaching the door surrounded by his friends and beside the raven-haired girl. The two of them were flirting furiously with each other. As he came through the door, he noticed Glynda straight away and looked at her with a surprised expression. The girls and his other friends looked at him and then to Glynda and appeared to be just as confused as the other students. He obviously hadn't confided in anyone about what was going on with him. Glynda smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Hi." He said cautiously.

"Hello. How was class?"

The others started to shuffle by them and leave Draco behind. The girl looked slightly miffed, but not cross and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"I'll see you at dinner Draco." She said in a politely soft and sweet voice.

Draco mumbled an agreement and looked at her bashfully for a few moments before turning back to see Glynda beaming at him.

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend" she teased with a giggle.

"She's not my girlfriend." He immediately defended looking worried, then seeing the mischievous glint in Glynda's eyes, he relaxed a smile and continued, "Well, not yet anyway."

"Oh well, you better go and get ready for dinner then hadn't you? Don't forget to brush your teeth!"

Draco chuckled and sidled away.

"OK. Can I maybe come and see you later?" he asked.

"Anytime." She said assuring him. "Although, I'm going to be practising some of this protection spell with Professor Snape and I don't know how long I'll be."

"Oh, right. Would it be OK if I watched later on? I still don't really know what it is that you have to do for me." Glynda was so happy that he was so eager to spend time with her. She felt fully accepted by him already.

"Of course. I'm sure that'll be fine."

"I'll come down here for you then, when I'm free."

"Don't rush away from anything!" she laughed again and walked into the potions classroom, leaving a slightly red-faced Draco to head to his dormitory.

Snape was still clearing away the potions samples from his desk as she entered. There was a row of cages increasing in size along the back wall of the room where their potion had been left to brew. Glynda surveyed them as she passed. They each contained an animal, ranging from a field mouse, to a chimpanzee.

"I trust you've mastered linking yourself with the beetles by now?" Severus had approached from behind without making a sound and naturally Glynda jumped with fright.

"Oh, you startled me!" she said. Severus had that amused shadow in his expression again, and Glynda felt her earlier resolve about getting on with the spells leave. "Yes, I think I succeeded. I've certainly improved my wand work."

"Good. I've collected these animals to practice on. We'll start with the simple ones, and hopefully progress to the more complex ones by the time the potion is ready to use. The objective at the moment is to connect with their feelings using the incantation you've been practising, and then when the potion is ready, you can drink some and try to open up a channel to their heart. We won't notice any effect using the simpler animals for that part, so you'll have to be competent with the likes of the skunk and the chimpanzee before you can move onto that." Severus strolled up and down the row of cages as he spoke and stopped as he came to the field mouse. He opened the cage and lifted it out onto a desk.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Glynda looked determinedly at the mouse and held out her wand.

"Here we go."

Several hours passed without a break in the feverous practise. Glynda was growing increasingly tired, but was kept going on the adrenaline of the success she was having.

She had linked with most of the animals in the cages and had felt such a long string of emotion that was so foreign to her that her defences were very low. From the field mouse she had felt a never ceasing ambition to reach the top of the corn plant. From a rabbit she had a strong urge to munch on salad and jump up and down. From a parrot, she had simply been overwhelmed with a need to talk and talk and talk… The cat had been interesting. She felt the predatory watchfulness as the cat looked over at the field mouse, but an inherent fear as the snarling bulldog bared its' teeth. This was all secondary to a principal requirement for milk and lasagne.

Time after time, she repeated the incantation on animal after animal. Snape evaluated each performance and demonstrated his suggestions for improvement. He would bring out a new animal, then go back to the previous one, then move on, and go back to the bloody field mouse again. Glynda realised he didn't do things by halves. This was a serious learning session she was in, and it was clear, that no matter how much she thought she had learned and demonstrated, it would not be enough for Snape. Back and back and repeat after repeat. He never became irritated though, and was for the most part quite encouraging.

When she finally started work on the chimpanzee, she stood with her wand ready, as Snape opened the cage, and took a deep breath. He paused before letting the animal out of the cage and turned to look at her. His face lit up with the most endearing smile she had ever seen him show.

"You're doing great." He said. His unguarded compliment had lit a fire in her insides. She positively beamed at him and almost yelled.

"Let's go!"

The chimpanzee had been the hardest one of them all to relate to. Its human-like qualities meant that it worked even harder to resist Glynda's provocation. Negative feelings were in abundance with this one, and for the first time, despite the previous optimistic encounter with Severus, her confidence nearly wavered. She let go of her wand and stamped her foot in frustration. In a flash, Severus was by her side picking up the fallen object and handing it to her. As she grabbed it, he didn't let go and they focussed on each other.

"Don't give up Glynda." He was barely audible, but his point came across perfectly. "Don't _ever _give up!" She locked eye contact with him and, in her exhausted state of mind, read the only double meaning that she could; Severus never gave up when he performed the spell and he's never given up his faithfulness to her. She swallowed hard and turned her attention back to the chimpanzee.

Her steely determination returned and she cast the incantation to immediately become weighed down with the emotions of the animal. She only briefly contemplated the feelings of longing to swing from a tree high up in the air and chew on sticks and leaves before lifting herself from the mind of the animal to jubilantly celebrate the fact that she had mastered the incantation with all of the animals. Severus was also looking extremely pleased. Glynda was so excited that she grabbed him into a hug. He became very rigid as she held him, highlighting the awkwardness that they were now in. She hushed her celebrative noises and moved her arms away from his body. They still stood close to each other and looked into each other's eyes. Once again, those dark pools mesmerised Glynda as she searched out his life stories among them. Both chests heaved with passionate breath as they each read wonton emotion from the other. She could feel his warm breath on her face, and as she sent out lustful signals, she saw a dawning realisation in his eyes as he interpreted them correctly. Finally; a moment in time when they both knew that they desired each other. Severus slowly leaned in towards her and tilted his head slightly. Glynda closed her eyes in anticipation. His breath was on her lips and as they lightly brushed against hers…

BANG BANG BANG.

A loud knock came at the door. They both snapped out of their moment and turned towards the door, still standing together. The door swung open and Dracos head popped around with a smile that wavered slightly on surveying the scene.

"Draco!" Glynda welcomed him immediately and left Severus' side to make for the door. He eyed her cautiously as she approached.

'Oh, my God! What did he see? What did he see?' Glynda fretted as she held the door open for him to come in.

"Come in." she tried cheerily.

"Are… are you sure it's OK" Draco stuttered, still assessing the scene before him.

'Oh, he knows what I was just about to do and he hates me for it!' Glyndas' mind was going frantic.

"Of course!" she ushered him into the room and shut the door. He didn't move in too far. Snape approached him.

"Two points from Slytherin for entering a professors' room without permission!" Snape snapped. "In future, please knock and wait."

"Sorry sir." Draco said guiltily and Snape strode to his desk.

Glynda had just begun being shocked at Snapes outburst, and thinking about how she wanted to hide what she had nearly done from Draco, and that Snapes' behavious was just highlighting that something had nearly went on, when Draco looked towards her and raised his eyebrows at Snape with an expression, that said 'What's his problem?' He then approached the cages and looked at the animals in turn. She then realised, with relief, that Draco had no idea what they had been about to do and was actually just curious about what all the cages were for.

"How're things going then?" Draco asked, still studying all the animals.

Glynda moved further into the room. She noticed Snape was assessing the potion and was gently stirring it. He didn't look up at her. She sighed lightly and wondered what had just happened between them. A new door had definitely been opened. She felt nervous, and then looked at Draco, causing another wave of guilt to make her stomach churn. What had he just asked?

'Focus Glynda!'

"How did you get on at dinner?" she asked him, smiling mischievously.

"You're not really asking me about dinner are you?" He smiled coyly and opened the cage with the cat in it and took it out.

"Well, I'm trying to be tactful!" They both laughed. "What's her name?"

"Who's name?" Draco sat down at the nearest bench and stroked the cat sitting on his lap.

"The girl you were flirting with after class. The one who isn't your girlfriend, _yet_!" Glynda took the seat beside Draco and tickled the cat behind its ears.

"Oh, I told you that did I? Well, her name is Pansy and she's still not my girlfriend, _yet_!" They both looked at each other and giggled.

"Well with looks like yours, it won't take long to remedy that."

"Maybe I'm the one playing hard to get."

"Judging from that performance in my potions class today, I hardly think that's accurate." Snape had crept up without them noticing. He glowered fondly at Draco, but his tone was sharp.

"Sorry sir." Draco looked away guiltily.

"If put more effort into your potion making, and less into Miss Parkinson, then perhaps your mark would improve." Snape picked the cat up out of Dracos lap and turned to put it back in its cage.

"Or, if you place your efforts the other way, you might get a winch before Christmas!" Glynda whispered to Draco, who laughed embarrassedly.

Snape turned and scowled at them and folded his arms crossly.

"Will we be moving on with this spell tonight, or are we just going to sit around and giggle?" His tone suggested that he had no intention of sitting down and giggling.

They both rolled their eyes at each other and Glynda rose, ready to begin again.

Glyndas confidence with the spell was just overflowing as the hours passed again. Draco was sitting watching with intense interest as she linked once again with all of the animals, then over and over again with the chimpanzee.

"Oh, Draco, go and get me a banana would you?" she said jokingly as she slumped exhausted against a bench.

She was finally ready to try out the potion and see if she could open a channel between her heart and the chimps'.

"Now, the effect of the potion is instantaneous, but you only have about twenty minutes to complete the incantation before it wears off." Snape explained as he ladled some of the potion into a glass. It was an iridescent green and pink fluid with a watery consistency. It seemed to sparkle in the glass and a slight froth appeared around the top. "This isn't going to taste nice." He said as he handed her the glass.

"Cheers!" she said as she raised her glass to herself and up ended it as she swallowed the whole dose. She instantly had the urge to be sick, and she gagged dryly, pulling a very unattractive face. 'Eugh! That's so disgusting. I can't keep it down.' She heaved, but nothing came back up. The final residues left her mouth, and she started to feel a crackling sensation on her tongue, like the Crackle muggle sweet she'd eaten as a little girl. This time, instead of just crackling on her tongue and fading, it stayed and the sensation began to move down her gullet into her stomach and from there, she felt it move through her whole body via her veins. Within a minute, her whole body was tingling. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, she thought. Then the pain began. Just a dull ache at first, then more of a throbbing in her chest. She could feel every bodily function. Her lungs and heart were pumping; both at an alarmingly fast rate. Just then, her surroundings began to blur as the tingling sensation continued it journey. The potion had penetrated into her brain and was making her head and eyes tingle. She couldn't focus on herself, never mind the chimp.

Her head and chest thumped wildly as she tried to gain some control back. She kept remembering that she only had twenty minutes to perform the incantation, and tried to string the words together, but no sound seemed to come from her mouth at all. An overwhelming fear ran through her. She couldn't see, speak or hear anything. She flailed her arms around wildly trying to grab onto someone, or something. Then her arms stopped moving. Were they being restricted? Now she couldn't feel anything either. Sheer panic developed.

She stopped trying to do anything and just remained still and quiet, trying to think about what was going on. All senses left her and she couldn't even think about what she was supposed to be doing. She was in a void.

Nothing…

Nothing…

Nothing…

After what seemed like an age, the world swirled back into focus. She could hear a faint buzzing in her ears and she saw a dark figure holding her steady. She began to feel the pressure of its grip on her arms and then a moan escaped her lips.

"Glynda? Are you back? OK, now focus Glynda. Cast the incantation. Come on, focus." Snape was speaking directly to her, but her head was groggy and she couldn't make sense of anything. "Draco, help me encourage her." Then another figure stepped into her line of vision.

"Come on mum, you can do it!" it said. "Can she hear us yet?"

"Yes, she's just trying to remember what she's supposed to be doing."

"Focus on the spell mum. Go on and do it"

"Come on Glynda, remember the incantation. You can do this."

Glyndas mind began to process everything she was hearing. 'An incantation? What incantation? That's funny, why is there a chimpanzee behind Draco? Oh, Draco; my boy. Mum? He called me mum again.' Hearing him call her that elated her and things finally clicked into place. She had to save her son! She was practising the spell that would save him.

"OahKay" she slurred and Snape and Draco cleared away from her.

Glynda concentrated hard on trying to form the words and after a few strange sounds, managed to recite the incantation.

Her first attempt worked and the pain resumed. Once again her heart was pounding ferociously. She could barely breathe, it was so sore. She had no idea what a heart attack felt like, but this felt much worse, like her heart was actually about to burst. Her wand was still held steady, pointing at the chimpanzee, but her other hand was clutching at her chest, as if to hold her heart in place. Tears were running down her cheeks and she mustered some vocals to make soft whimpering sounds. By her side, Severus and Draco were ready to give their support. Draco looked terrified at the sight of her. Severus was concerned, but alternated his attention between her and the chimpanzee while he assessed the success of her incantation. As the pain grew, Glynda closed her eyes, dropped her wand and fell to the floor.

Severus and Draco were fussing over her instantly.

"It's OK Glynda, it's all over." Severus spoke soothingly as he helped her sit up. The pain had subsided as soon as she stopped the spell. "Accio chocolate." Severus caught a large chocolate bar that flew through the air towards him, broke off a small piece and fed it to Glynda. Her energy revived, she stood up and walked slowly to a bench and sat down properly. Draco, sat down beside her and placed a hand on her arm. She covered it with hers and mustered a smile from some hidden energy source. She felt strangely positive about the look of concern on Dracos face. He really cared for her. And so he should after seeing what she was going to go through for him. She had no idea that it was going to be this hard. The pain was unbearable, but worth it to protect the perfect child sitting next to her.

Severus towered in front of her.

"I think you've managed to accomplish more than we had hoped for this evening." He said. "Make sure you have something substantial to eat before retiring."

"What time is it?" she asked groggily.

"It's after midnight." Draco said. "I should be getting back to my dormitory."

"OK. Thanks for being here." It was all she could manage to say, but her words were very sincere. Draco shook his head slightly.

"I can't believe you're doing this for me. I…" he trailed off.

"It's OK. I can't believe I'm doing it either!" They smiled at each other. Draco reached out to hug her and they held each other close for a few moments.

"I'll see you tomorrow. OK?" he asked.

"OK."

Draco left the room and Severus took his place beside Glynda.

"Do you want me to sort out some food for you?" Severus asked.

"Oh, yes please."

Glynda rested as Severus flooed the kitchens. Soon she was devouring her food like she hadn't eaten in a week. When she was finished, Severus took her plate away and sat down next to her again.

"That was very impressive. I didn't manage it the first time I did it." Severus was still speaking in quite a soothing tone. Glynda really appreciated his comment, as she hadn't heard him compliment anyone at all since coming back. "You're still a very powerful witch…and very brave."

"Thank you." Glynda said simply.

"It's great that you and Draco are getting on so well. It'll really make it easier for you."

"He's such a darling. I'm so proud of him."

They sat in comfortable silence for a short while, as Glyndas energy reserves filled back up.

Her mind wandered back to before Draco arrived. There had really been a powerful spark between her and Severus at that moment. Had it left them alight or had it flickered and died? She looked up at him. He was focussed on a spot on the floor looking deep in thought. 'What is he thinking?' she wondered. 'Is he thinking about our close encounter?' Her stomach fluttered slightly as he turned towards her. She averted her gaze to another spot on the floor, but felt his eyes bore into her. She shouldn't look into his eyes, or she'd be lost in them again. She couldn't resist.

Glynda brought her focus back onto him. He was still looking at her intently. Their eyes met, and there was no sign of questioning from either of them. Their gaze lingered and Severus slowly leaned his head towards hers and met her lips with his. It was a short, sweet kiss after which Severus pulled back slightly as if waiting for consent to continue. When there was no objection, he turned to face her and slid his arm across her shoulders and replaced his lips on hers once more...

Please review.


	12. Sweet Passion

Hello Folks. I'm so sorry for having such a long gap between chapters. It just took me so long to get Chapter 12 started and I don't like posting a chapter if I haven't started work on the next one. I can't promise there wont be similar delays in future, so I hope you can bear with me. Anyway, last time I left you with a bit of a cliffie - Severus has just kissed Glynda!

Well as you may have guessed, there will be plenty of smut in this chapter - in fact that's all this chapter is. So please be warned, if you don't like the thought of these characters having some nookie, then please leave a review and go read another story. Otherwise, read on and tell me what you think.

Hugs RB.

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**Chapter 11**

Glynda felt many years of built up passion flow from Severus in this encounter. She, likewise, returned it with much fervour. The kiss deepened in passion and pace. Moments of long lingering clinches, where they held each other so tight that it restricted their heavy breathing, were intertwined with small pecks and nibbles on each others lips and necks. No hands were still for more than a moment. Glynda felt her way slowly up his torso to broad shoulders where she met his long dark mane. Her fingers ran through the dark tresses and rested on his scalp, pulling his head towards hers so that he couldn't escape from the exploration of his mouth with her tongue. He didn't seem to want to escape anyway. His strong arms were wrapped around her slight frame and his mouth opened up wider to allow her access inside, eagerly awaiting his turn to probe back. Glynda felt his arms unfurl from her body, but his hands stayed to roam around her waist and the small of her back. They travelled up slowly, firmly pressed into her ribs, making the delicate fabric of her robes rustle. The heel of his hands brushed past her breasts, making a tingling sensation rush to her groin, as he finally came to rest on her shoulders. She released her hold of his head, which gave him the chance to break free from her tongue and catch her bottom lip in his teeth. As he sucked the flesh into his mouth, he pulled on her head as she'd done to him. He licked her lips before inserting his tongue into her mouth.

Glynda trailed her hands over his shoulders and felt his chest. His lean body felt solid and muscular even through his thick robes. His tongue became less invasive as she massaged his chest. Severus gently broke off the kiss and deftly swept her hair back to reveal her neck. Glynda rested her head on his chest and felt his warm, moist lips trail kisses under her ear. She shuddered as his fingers pulled at the material of her collar, softly stroking the skin that was hidden underneath. His kisses moved to the top of her head as his hands stroked her face with light feathery touches that seemed to set fire to her skin, all over. She could feel and hear the sound of his heart pounding ferociously in his chest, but a careful hand brought her chin up to face him.

They were but inches apart as they looked into each others eyes. Surges of heat and passion had flooded Glyndas nerves and now she gazed longingly into his dark voids, now filled with obsession. Both of them were breathing hard and fast as if they had been physically exerted. Nothing had to be said between them at that moment. Glynda saw his gaze falter slightly as he glanced downwards at her hands resting on his chest. His gaze came back to her briefly as Severus slowly took her wrists and lowered her arms to her sides. Without breaking contact with her, he moved to the clasp on her robes and unbuttoned it to take her from it.

Low intensity purges of pleasure went through Glyndas body at the thought of what she was doing, and who with. She gazed dreamily at him and glanced between his face and his hands as he began to unbutton her blouse. Severus concentrated only on the buttons as he did so. Glynda noticed him swallow hard a couple of times before all her attention was on his hands and where they were. He undid all of the buttons, brushing gently past her breasts, before shakily reaching up with both hands to scrape the garment off of her shoulders to reveal her simple lacy underwear. His touch on her freshly exposed regions was hot and sent pleasure signals right to her sensitive areas. She instantly felt her nipples harden and saw them make visible points in her bra. When Severus had removed her blouse completely, he looked at her face again, before lowering his gaze and seeing more of her that he'd ever seen in all his years of infatuation with her. He gasped audibly catching Glyndas attention. She leaned up and captured his mouth with hers. He hesitated before holding her, as if he thought he shouldn't touch her nearly naked torso, but Glynda pulled him close into her embrace.

Feeling the warmth of him, through his robes, on her bare skin Glynda sighed almost too softly to be heard. Severus cautiously began playing with the clasp of her bra and soon the garment was undone. Glynda felt her weighty breasts drop slightly as the support was released and moaned softly as his hands slid up her back and over her shoulders bringing the straps with him. She leaned back and slid her arms out of it. As Severus cast it away, Glynda reached to his collar and undid the clasp of his robes. Seeming eager to be rid of it, Severus swept it off his shoulders and threw it aside. He made to unbutton his shirt, but Glynda placed her hands on his.

"Let me." She whispered.

They glanced at each other and a slender smile toyed on both sets of lips before they met again for a slow kiss. Tender masculine hands massaged Glynda's neck as she moved lower, still undoing buttons. There seemed to be yards of them. She reached the waist of his trousers and tugged his shirt out of them. She broke off from the kiss and sat back. She felt his gaze on her as she pulled open the shirt revealing his well-toned body with a manly amount of black curly hair stretching from his neck to his trousers. As she reached for his chest, Severus moved his hands down her front and carefully caressed her breasts.

Glynda held her breath in as his thumbs circled her hard nipples, gently flicking them. His head came towards her neck and his tongue left a wet trail down to her breast. He took one nipple into his mouth and sucked gently causing Glynda to moan louder due to the carnal connection to her womanhood. She could feel her groin grow moist and her clitoris was positively throbbing. She needed to be touched there soon.

Glynda tried to push Severus' shirt down his back causing him to part from her nipple. She felt his warm breath exhale on it as he retreated. Her hands drifted around the waistband of his trousers and her wrists bumped into his obvious arousal as she reached the front. She tentatively placed her hand over the bulge to confirm that it was his manhood. Feeling it twitch under her touch, she gasped and looked to find Severus biting his lower lip with his eyes closed. A low groan escaped his lips as she gently squeezed it. He moved his hips towards her hand as she removed it to undo his belt and waistband.

'More bloody buttons' she thought as she undid his fly and pulled it open. She reached in and prized out his throbbing muscle. She only just managed to close her hand around the shaft, which was at least two times the length of her fist. Severus gasped and reached for her hand to stop her ministrations.

"Please don't." he growled, "I'm too close."

His voice brought Glyndas focus back to the harsh reality of the potions classroom.

"Can we…" she faltered, "…go to your room?" Severus glanced away from her quickly, possibly also just realising that they were still in the classroom and deftly rose to his feet, offering her his hand. She took it and was led to a door behind a curtain off of the classroom. She barely had time to notice that she was in the room she had spoken to Severus in when she had first arrived back at Hogwarts, before she was guided through another door leading to his bed chamber.

Severus let go of her hand to let her go through and shut the door behind them. Glynda didn't bother taking in the luxurious décor of the room, but turned to face Severus. Standing half naked, with his penis sticking out from the fly of his trousers, Glynda used all her reserve not to jump on him straight away. Instead, they looked at each other for a moment. Severus looked at her body and her relaxed breasts before taking a step forward, reaching for the waistband of her skirt.

"Glynda!" he moaned lustfully as he nuzzled into her neck. His hands swiftly undid and lowered her skirt as she kicked off her shoes. The feeling of his soft, but wiry hair against her bare flesh was causing floods of arousal to sear through her. She crept her arms around his back and savoured the feel of his smooth skin under her fingers. She lowered her hands to his loose trousers and felt a warm patch of hair on the small of his back. She tousled it for a moment as she felt his arms circling her, and his hands roamed downwards around her shapely bottom. He stroked the flesh left bare around her lacy thong with one hand and his other arm held her close to him.

Glynda tugged at his trousers and they finally fell to the floor. She ground herself against his erection. Their torsos remained connected, but Severus gently pushed Glyndas hip back and drew his hand around to the front of her panties. His fingers played with the rim of them before lightly tracing down the outside of the material to her wet folds. The fabric moistened instantly as Severus pushed the thong into her opening with his fingers. He slowly massaged her area as her hips thrust into his hand for more contact.

Glynda let her own hands do some more travelling and they found their way to Severus' tight buttocks. She squeezed one of them and felt his hard cock press into her stomach. Finally, his fingers curled around her thong and pulled to remove it. Glynda's clitoris felt ready to explode. Her excitement at the anticipation of Severus' touch made her moan into his chest.  
His fingers gently probed her opening and circled her swollen clitoris. Glynda moaned even more loudly. She was so close to orgasm. Severus poked her vagina with one finger making her almost squeal with delight. She put her arms around his neck and grasped him tightly as he fingered her further. He prodded her G-spot sending waves of pleasure through her. Her orgasm was building up quickly.

Glynda clung to Severus as he continued to masturbate her. She gyrated into his hand and moaned into his neck. Her hot breath made moisture form on his skin. She opened her mouth and sucked at the area, gently closing her teeth onto the flesh and nibbling gently. Severus worked more fingers inside her, keeping his thumb tickling at her clitoris. The waves of intense pleasure flooded her nerves and she moaned loudly as Severus rocked her to orgasm. Her knees went weak and shaky as the euphoric feeling took over her body causing her to shudder and bolt against his hand. Her love juice squelched around his hand as he tenderly rubbed her opening, soothing her throbbing nub.

She relaxed into his hold and felt his eager cock rub against her stomach. She reached between them and took Severus's prick in her hands. She pulled the velvety skin back from the head and squeezed it upwards. Severus groaned lowly as a trickle of semen escaped from the tip.

"I need you now" He growled primitively, and guided her to the bed where he laid her down on her back and moved her legs and knees apart showing the glistening gap between them. Severus climbed between her legs and leant on one hand as he used the other one to guide his hot muscle across her labia.

Glynda felt herself be filled by him. Her insides stretched to accommodate his penis and he sunk into her slowly, moaning. Glynda tried to unsuccessfully stifle a squeal as his cock impaled her. She lay back with her legs wrapped around his waist, helpless, as Severus began to move in and out of her, banging against her vital spot every time. He lowered his torso onto hers and grabbed the cheeks of her bottom and grinded himself into her fiercely. Glynda began to feel her insides shake to orgasm again and shouted loud moans of ascension, just as Severus bucked with bliss giving off loud grunts of lust as his seed squirted up inside her.

They both sighed with spent pleasure as Severus slumped onto her, exhausted. There they lay trying to get their breaths back for a while. Glynda closed her eyes and smiled a satisfied smile to herself. She laid her hands across his sweaty back and stroked it lovingly. He manoeuvred himself off of her, withdrawing his almost floppy penis from her opening making them both gasp at the post coital feeling of mutual gratification. He rested his head on her shoulder and threw his arm across her body. Still breathing heavily, but contentedly, they lay like that until sleep took them both at once.


End file.
